.............................................................................................................................."Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creationBlessed be my beautiful peopleBlessed be the day of our awakeningBlessed is my countryBlessed are her patient hills.

The student strikes in Quebec, which began in February and have lasted for three months, involving roughly 175,000 students in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province, have been subjected to a massive provincial and national media propaganda campaign to demonize and dismiss the students and their struggle. The following is a list of ten points that everyone should know about the student movement in Quebec to help place their struggle in its proper global context.1. The issue is debt, not tuition

2. Striking students in Quebec are setting an example for youth across the continent

3. The student strike was organized through democratic means and with democratic aims

4. This is not an exclusively Quebecois phenomenon

5. Government officials and the media have been openly calling for violence and “fascist” tactics to be used against the students

6. Excessive state violence has been used against the students

7. The government supports organized crime and opposes organized students

8. Canada’s elites punish the people and oppose the students

9. The student strike is being subjected to a massive and highly successful propaganda campaign to discredit, dismiss, and demonize the students

10. The student movement is part of a much larger emerging global movement of resistance against austerity, neoliberalism, and corrupt power

1) The issue is debt, not tuition: In dismissing the students, who are striking against a 75% increase in the cost of tuition over the next five years, the most common argument used is in pointing out that Quebec students pay the lowest tuition in North America, and therefore, they should not be complaining. Even with the 75% increase, they will still be paying substantially lower than most other provinces. Quebec students pay on average $2,500 per year in tuition, while the rest of Canada’s students pay on average $5,000 per year. With the tuition increase of $1,625 spread out over five years, the total tuition cost for Quebec students would be roughly $4,000. The premise here is that since the rest of Canada has it worse, Quebec students should shut up, sit down, and accept “reality.” THIS IS FALSE. In playing the “numbers game,” commentators and their parroting public repeat the tuition costs but fail to add in the numbers which represent the core issue: DEBT. So, Quebec students pay half the average national tuition. True. But they also graduate with half the average national student debt. With the average tuition at $5,000/year, the average student debt for an undergraduate in Canada is $27,000, while the average debt for an undergraduate in Quebec is $13,000. With interest rates expected to increase, in the midst of a hopeless job situation for Canadian youth, Canada’s youth face a future of debt that “is bankrupting a generation of students.” The notion, therefore, that Quebec students should not struggle against a bankrupt future is a bankrupted argument.

2) Striking students inQuebec are setting an example for youth across the continent: Nearly 60% of Canadian students graduate with debt, on average at $27,000 for an undergraduate degree. Total student debt now stands at about $20 billion in Canada ($15 billion from Federal Government loans programs, and the rest from provincial and commercial bank loans). In Quebec, the average student debt is $15,000, whereas Nova Scotia and Newfoundland have an average student debt of $35,000, British Columbia at nearly $30,000 and Ontario at nearly $27,000. Roughly 70% of new jobs in Canada require a post-secondary education. Half of students in their 20s live at home with their parents, including 73 per cent of those aged 20 to 24 and nearly a third of 25- to 29-year-olds. On average, a four-year degree for a student living at home in Canada costs $55,000, and those costs are expected to increase in coming years at a rate faster than inflation. It has been estimated that in 18 years, a four-year degree for Canadian students will cost $102,000. Defaults on government student loans are at roughly 14%. The Chairman of the Canadian Federation of Students warned in June of 2011 that, “We are on the verge of bankrupting a generation before they even enter the workplace.” This immense student debt affects every decision made in the lives of young graduates. With few jobs, enormous housing costs, the cutting of future benefits and social security, students are entering an economy which holds very little for them in opportunities. Women, minorities, and other marginalized groups are in an even more disadvantaged position. Canadian students are increasingly moving back home and relying more and more upon their parents for support. An informal Globe and Mail poll in early May of 2012 (surveying 2,200 students), “shows that students across Canada share a similar anxiety over rising tuition fees” as that felt in Quebec. Roughly 62% of post-secondary students said they would join a similar strike in their own province, while 32% said they would not, and 5.9% were undecided. In Ontario, where tuition is the highest in Canada, 69% said they would support a strike against increasing tuition. A Quebec research institution released a report in late March of 2012 indicating that increasing the cost of tuition for students is creating a “student debt bubble” akin to the housing bubble in the United States, and with interest rates set to increase, “today’s students may well find themselves in the same situation of not being able to pay off their student loans.” The authors of the report from the Institut de recherche et d’informations socio-economique explained that, “Since governments underwrite those loans, if students default it could be catastrophic for public finances,” and that, “If the bubble explodes, it could be just like the mortgage crisis.” In the United States, the situation is even worse. In March of 2012, the Federal Reserve reported that 27 percent of student borrowers whose loans have gone into repayment are now delinquent on their debt.” Student debt in the United States has reached $1 trillion, “passing total credit card debt along the way.” It has become a threat to the entire existence of the middle class in America. Bankruptcy lawyers in the US are “seeing the telltale signs of a student loan debt bubble.” A recent survey from the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) indicated, “more than 80 percent of bankruptcy lawyers have seen a substantial increase in the number of clients seeking relief from student loans in recent years.” The head of the NACBA stated, “This could very well be the next debt bomb for the U.S. economy.” In 1993, 45% of students who earn a bachelor’s degree had to go into debt; today, it is 94%. The average student debt in the United States in 2011 was $23,300, with 10% owning more than $54,000 and 3% owing more than $100,000. President Obama has addressed the situation by simply providing more loans to students. A recent survey of graduates revealed that 40% of them “had delayed making a major purchase, like a home or car, because of college debt, while slightly more than a quarter had put off continuing their education or had moved in with relatives to save money,” and 50% of those surveyed had full-time jobs. Between 2001 and 2011, “state and local financing per student declined by 24 percent nationally.” In the same period of time, “tuition and fees at state schools increased 72 percent.” It would appear that whether in the United States, Canada, or even beyond, the decisions made by schools, banks, and the government, are geared toward increasing the financial burden on students and families, and increasing profits for themselves. The effect will be to plunge the student and youth population into poverty over the coming years. Thus, the student movement in Quebec, instead of being portrayed as “entitled brats” elsewhere, are actually setting an example for students and youth across the continent and beyond. Since Quebec tuition is the lowest on the continent, it gives all the more reason that other students should follow Quebec’s example, instead of Quebec students being told to follow the rest of the country (and continent) into debt bondage.

3) The student strike was organized through democratic means and with democratic aims: The decision to strike was made through student associations and organizations that uniquely operate through direct-democracy. While most student associations at schools across Canada hold elections where students choose the members of the associations, the democratic accountability ends there (just like with government). Among the Francophone schools in Quebec, the leaders are not only elected by the students, but decisions are made through general assemblies, debate and discussion, and through the votes of the actual constituents, the members of the student associations, not just the leaders. This means that the student associations that voted to strike are more democratically accountable and participatory than most other student associations, and certainly the government. It represents a more profound and meaningful working definition of democracy that is lacking across the rest of the country. The Anglophone student associations that went on strike – from Concordia and McGill – did so because, for the first time ever, they began to operate through direct-democracy. This of course, has resulted in insults and derision from the media. The national media in Canada – most especially the National Post – complain that the student “tactics are anything but democratic,” and that the students aren’t acting in a democratic way, but that “it’s really mob rule.” Obviously, it is naïve to assume that the National Post has any sort of understanding of democracy.

4) This is not an exclusively Quebecois phenomenon: I am an Anglophone, I don’t even speak French, I have only lived in Montreal for under two years, but the strikers are struggling as much for me as for any other student, Francophone or Anglophone. Typically, when others across Canada see what is taking place here, they frame it along the lines of, “Oh those Quebecois, always yelling about something.” But I’m yelling too… in English. Many people here are yelling… in English. It is true that the majority of the students protesting are Francophone, and the majority of the schools on strike are Francophone, but it is not exclusionary. In fact, the participation in the strike from the Anglophone schools (while a minority within the schools) is unprecedented in Quebec history. This was undertaken because students began mobilizing at the grassroots and emulating the French student groups in how they make decisions (i.e., through direct-democracy). The participation of Anglophone students in the open-ended strike is unprecedented in Quebec history.

5) Government officials and the media have been openly calling for violence and “fascist” tactics to be used against the students: With all the focus on student violence at protests, breaking bank windows, throwing rocks at riot police, and other acts of vandalism, student leaders have never called for violence against the government or vandalism against property, and have, in fact, denounced it and spoken out for calm, stating: “The student movement wants to fight alongside the populace and not against it.” On the other hand, it has been government officials and the national media which have been openly calling for violence to be used against students. On May 11, Michael Den Tandt, writing for the National Post, stated that, “It’s time for tough treatment of Quebec student strikers,” and recommended to Quebec Premier Jean Charest that, “He must bring down the hammer.” Tandt claimed that there was “a better way” to deal with student protesters: “Dispersal with massive use of tear gas; then arrest, public humiliation, and some pain.” He even went on to suggest that, “caning is more merciful than incarceration,” or perhaps even re-imagining the medieval punishment in which “miscreants and ne’er-do-wells were placed in the stockade, in the public square, and pelted with rotten cabbages. That might not be a bad idea, either.” This, Tandt claimed, would be the only way to preserve “peace, order, and good government.” Kelly McParland, writing the for National Post on May 11, suggested that it was now time for Charest to “empower the police to use the full extent of the law against those who condone or pursue further disruption,” and that the government must make a “show of strength” against the students. If this was not bad enough, get ready for this: A member of the Quebec Liberal Party, head of the tax office in the Municipal Affairs Department, Bernard Guay, wrote an article for a French-language newspaper in Quebec in mid-April advocating a strategy to “end the student strikes.” In the article, the government official recommended using the fascist movements of the 1920s and 1930s as an example in how to deal with “leftists” in giving them “their own medicine.” He suggested organizing a political “cabal” to handle the “wasteful and anti-social” situation, which would mobilize students to not only cross picket lines, but to confront and assault students who wear the little red square (the symbol of the student strike). This, Guay suggested, would help society “overcome the tyranny of Leftist agitators,” no doubt by emulating fascist tyranny. The article was eventually pulled and an apology was issued, while a government superior supposedly reprimanded Guay, though the government refused to elaborate on what that consisted of. Just contemplate this for a moment: A Quebec Liberal government official recommended using “inspiration” from fascist movements to attack the striking students. Imagine if one of the student associations had openly called for violence, let alone for the emulation of fascism. It would be national news, and likely lead to arrests and charges. But since it was a government official, barely a peep was heard.

6) Excessive state violence has been used against the students: Throughout the three months of protests from students in Quebec, the violence has almost exclusively been blamed on the students. Images of protesters throwing rocks and breaking bank windows inundate the media and ‘inform’ the discourse, demonizing the students as violent, vandals, and destructive. Meanwhile, the reality of state violence being used against the students far exceeds any of the violent reactions from protesters, but receives far less coverage. Riot police meet students with pepper spray, tear gas, concussion grenades, smoke bombs, beating them with batons, shoot them with rubber bullets, and have even been driving police cars and trucks into groups of students. On May 4, on the 42nd anniversary of the Kent State massacre in which the U.S. National Guard murdered four protesting students, Quebec almost experienced its own Kent State, when several students were critically injured by police, shot with rubber bullets in the face. One student lost an eye, and another remains in the hospital with serious head injuries, including a skull fracture and brain contusion. The Quebec provincial police – the SQ – have not only been involved in violent repression of student protests in Quebec, but have also (along with the RCMP) been involved in training foreign police forces how to violently repress their own populations, such as in Haiti. Roughly 12,000 people in Quebec have signed a petition against the police reaction to student protests, stipulating that the police actions have been far too violent. In late April, even before the Quebec police almost killed a couple students, Amnesty International “asked the government to call for a toning down of police measures that… are unduly aggressive and might potentially smother students’ right to free expression.” The Quebec government, of course, defends police violence against students and youths. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) – Canada’s spy agency – has recently announced its interest in “gathering intelligence” on Quebec student protesters and related groups as “possible threats to national security.” Coincidentally, Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismantled the government agency responsible for oversight of CSIS, making the agency essentially unaccountable. In reaction to student protests, the City of Montreal is considering banning masks being worn at protests in a new bylaw which is being voted on without public consultation. Thus, apparently it is fine for police to wear gas masks as they shoot chemical agents at Quebec’s youth, but students cannot attempt to even meagerly protect themselves by covering their faces. The federal Conservative government of Stephen Harper is attempting to pass a law that bans masks at protests, which includes a ten-year sentence for “rioters who wear masks.” Quebec has even established a secretive police unit called the GAMMA squad to monitor political groups in the province, which has already targeted and arrested members of the leading student organization behind the strike. The police unit is designed to monitor “anarchists” and “marginal political groups.” Some political groups have acknowledged this as “a declaration of war” by the government against such groups. Spokesperson for the largest student group, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, stated that, “This squad is really a new kind of political police to fight against social movements.” The situation of police repression has become so prevalent that even the U.S. State Department has warned Americans to stay away from student protests in the city, “as bystanders can quickly be caught up in unforeseen violence and in some cases, detained by the local police.”

7) The government supports organized crime and opposes organized students: The government claims that it must increase the cost of tuition in order to balance the budget and to increase the “competitiveness” of schools. The government has ignored, belittled, undermined, attempted to divide, and outright oppress the student movement. The Liberal Government of Quebec, in short, has declared organized students to be enemies of the state. Meanwhile, that same government has no problem of working with and supporting organized crime, namely, the Montreal Mafia. In 2010, Quebec, under Premier Jean Charest, was declared to be “the most corrupt province” in Canada. A former opposition leader in the Montreal city hall reported that, “the Italian mafia controls about 80 per cent of city hall.” The mafia is a “big player” in the Quebec economy, and “is deeply entrenched in city affairs” of Montreal, as “more than 600 businesses pay Mafia protection money in Montreal alone, handing organized crime leaders an unprecedented degree of control of Quebec’s economy.” The construction industry, especially, is heavily linked to the mafia. The Montreal Mafia is as influential as their Sicilian counterparts, where “all of the major infrastructure work in Sicily is under Mafia control.” In 2009, a government official stated that, “It’s Montreal’s Italian Mafia that controls what is going on in road construction. They control, from what we can tell, 80 per cent of the contracts.” In the fall of 2011, an internal report written by the former Montreal police chief for the government was leaked, stating, “We have discovered a firmly rooted, clandestine universe on an unexpected scale, harmful to our society on the level of safety and economics and of justice and democracy.” The report added, “Suspicions are persistent that an evil empire is taking form in the highway construction domain,” and that, “If there were to be an intensification of influence-peddling in the political sphere, we would no longer simply be talking about marginal, or even parallel criminal activities: we could suspect an infiltration or even a takeover of certain functions of the state.” Quebec Premier Jean Charest, for several years, rejected calls for a public inquiry into corruption in the construction industry, even as the head of Quebec’s anti-collusion squad called for such an inquiry. An opposition party in Quebec stated that Jean Charest “is protecting the (Quebec) Liberal party – and in protecting the Liberal party, Mr. Charest is protecting the Mafia, organized crime.” After the leaked report revealed “cost overruns totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, kickbacks and illegal donations to political parties,” Charest had to – after two years of refusing – open a public inquiry into corruption. The Quebec mafia have not only “run gambling and prostitution and imported stupefying amounts of illegal drugs into Canada, but they have extended their influence to elected civic and provincial governments, and to Liberal and Conservative federal governments through bribery and other ‘illustrious relations’.” The Federal Conservative Party of Canada, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper as its leader, received dozens of donations from Mafia-connected construction and engineering firm employees. The Mafia-industry has also donated to the Federal Liberal Party, but less so than the Conservatives, who hold power. In Quebec, government officials have helped the Mafia charge far more for public-works contracts than they were worth. These Mafia companies would then use a lot of that extra money to fund political parties, most notably, the Liberals, who have been in power for nine years. A former Montreal police officer who worked in the intelligence unit with access to the police’s confidential list of informants was suspected of selling information to the mafia. In January of 2012, he was found dead, reportedly of a suicide. In April of 2012, fifteen arrests were made in Montreal by the police in relation to corruption charges linked to the Mafia. Among them were one of the biggest names in the construction industry, with 14 individual facing conspiracy charges “involving municipal contracts associated with the Mascouche water-treatment plants [that] are connected to big construction, engineering and law firms that have been involved in municipal contracts and politics across the Montreal region for decades. And the individuals have been around the municipal world for years.” One Quebec mayor has even been charged. The Montreal police force has “not been very interested, and it should be,” in helping the anti-corruption investigation. Two of those who were arrested included Quebec Liberal Party fundraisers, one of whom Charest personally delivered an award to in 2010 for his “years of service as an organizer.” All three of Quebec’s main political parties were connected to individuals arrested in the raids. Canada’s federal police force, the RCMP, have refused to cooperate with the Mafia-corruption inquiry in handing over their massive amounts of information to the judge leading the inquiry. Quebec Education Minister Line Beauchamp, who has been leading the government assault against the students, attended a political fundraiser for herself which was attended by a notorious Mafia figure who personally “donated generously to the minister’s Liberal riding association.” As these revelations emerged, Beauchamp stated, “I don’t know the individual in question and even today I wouldn’t be able to recognize him.” At the time, Beauchamp was the Environment Minister, and was responsible for granting the Mafia figure’s company a favourable certificate to expand its business. Beauchamp claimed she did not know about the deal, but as head of the Ministry which handled it, either she is utterly incompetent or a liar. Either way, she is clearly not fit for “public service” if it amounts to nothing more than “service to the Mafia.” The fact that she is now responsible for increasing tuition and leading the attack on students speaks volumes. Line Beauchamp, when questioned about taking political contributions from the Mafia, stated, “Now that the information is public and the links well established, I would not put myself in that position again.” Well isn’t that reassuring? Now that it’s public, she wouldn’t do it again. That’s sort of like saying, “I wouldn’t have committed the crime if I knew I was going to be caught.” The notion that Beauchamp didn’t know whom this Mafia figure was who was giving her money is absurd. It’s even more absurd when you note that one of Beauchamp’s political attaches was a 30-year veteran of the Montreal police force. As one Quebec political figure commented about the Liberal Government’s Mafia links: “They refuse to sit down with a student leader but they have breakfast with a mafioso … where is the logic in that?” Indeed. It’s clear that the Quebec government has no problem working with, handing out contracts to, and taking money from the Mafia and organized crime. In fact, they are so integrated that the government itself is a form of organized crime. But for that government, and for the media boot-lickers who follow the government line, organized students are the true threat to Quebec. National newspapers declare Quebec students following “mob rule” when it’s actually the government that is closely connected to “mob rule.” The students are challenging and being repressed by a Mafioso-government alliance of industrialists, politicians, financiers and police… yet it is the students who are blamed for everything. The government gives the Mafia public contracts double or triple their actual value, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars (if not more), while students are being asked to pay nearly double their current tuition. There’s money for the mob, but scraps for the students.

8) Canada’s elites punish the people and oppose the students:It’s not simply the government of Quebec which has set itself against the students, sought to increase their tuition and repress their resistance, often with violent means, but a wide sector of elite society in Quebec and Canada propose tuition increases and blind faith to the state in managing its repression of a growing social movement. As such, the student movement should recognize that not simply are Jean Charest and his Liberal-Mafia government the antagonists of social justice, but the whole elite society itself. As early as 2007, TD Bank, one of Canada’s big five banks, outlined a “plan for prosperity” for the province of Quebec, and directly recommended Quebec to raise tuition costs for students. Naturally, the Quebec government is more likely to listen to a bank than the youth of the province. Banks of course, have an interest in increasing tuition costs for students, as they provide student loans and lines of credit which they charge interest on and make profits. The Royal Bank of Canada acknowledged that student lines of credit are “very popular products.” Elites of all sorts support the tuition increases. In February of 2010, a group of “prominent” (i.e., elitist) Quebecers signed a letter proposing to increase Quebec’s tuition costs. Among the signatories were the former Premier of Quebec for the Parti Quebecois, Lucien Bouchard. In early May, a letter was published in the Montreal Gazette which stated that students need to pay more for their education in Quebec, signed by the same elitists who proposed the tuition increase back in February of 2010. Initially, this group of elitists had proposed an increase of $1,000 every year for three years. The letter then calls for the application of state power to be employed against the student movement: “It is time that we react. We must reinstate order; the students have to return to class… This is a situation when, regardless of political allegiances, the population must support the state, which is ultimately responsible for public order, the safety of individuals and the integrity of our institutions.” The “integrity” of institutions which cooperate with the Mafia, I might add. What incredible integrity! The letter was signed by Lucien Bouchard, former Premier of Quebec; Michel Audet, an economist and former Finance Minister in the first Charest government in Quebec; Françoise Bertrand, the President and chief executive officer of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (The Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce), where she sits alongside the presidents and executives of major Canadian corporations, banks, and business interests. She also sits on the board of directors of Quebecor Inc., a major media conglomerate, with former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on its board. Another signatory was Yves-Thomas Dorval, President of the Quebec Employers’ Council, who formerly worked for British American Tobacco Group, former Vice President at Edelman Canada, an international public relations firm, was a director at a pharmaceutical corporation, head of strategic planning at an insurance company, and previously worked for the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Quebec. Joseph Facal, another signatory to the letter demanding higher tuition and state repression of students, is former president of the Quebec Treasury Board, and was a cabinet minister in the Quebec government of Lucien Bouchard. Other signatories include Pierre Fortin, a professor emeritus at the Université du Québec à Montréal; Michel Gervais, the former rector of Université Laval; Monique Jérôme-Forget, former finance minister of Quebec and former president of the Quebec Treasury Board, member of the Quebec Liberal Party between 1998 and 2009, was responsible for introducing public-private partnerships in Quebec’s infrastructure development (which saw enormous cooperation with the Mafia), and is on the board of directors of Astral Media. Robert Lacroix, another co-signer, was former rector of the Université de Montréal is also a fellow at CIRANO, a Montreal-based think tank which is governed by a collection of university heads, business executives, and bankers, including representatives from Power Corporation (owned by the Desmarais family). Another signatory is Michel Leblanc, president and CEO of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, a prominent business organization in Montreal, of which the board of directors includes a number of corporate executives, mining company representatives, university board members, bankers and Hélène Desmarais, who married into the Desmarais family. Another signatory is Claude Montmarquette, professor emeritus at the Université de Montréal, who is also a member of the elitist CIRANO think tank, which as a “research institution” (for elites) has recommended increasing Quebec’s tuition costs for several years. Another signatory was Marcel Boyer, a Bell Canada Professor of industrial economics at the Université de Montréal, Vice-president and chief economist at the Montreal Economic Institute, is the C.D. Howe Scholar in Economic Policy at the C.D. Howe Institute, Member of the Board of the Agency for Public-Private Partnerships of Québec, and Visiting Senior Research Advisor for industrial economics at Industry Canada. At the Montreal Economic Institute, Boyer sits alongside notable elitists, bankers, and corporate executives, including Hélène Desmarais, who married into the Desmarais family (the most powerful family in Canada). At the C.D. Howe Institute, Boyer works for even more elitists, as the board of directors is made up of some of Canada’s top bankers, corporate executives, and again includes Hélène Desmarais. The Desmarais family, who own Power Corporation and its many subsidiaries, as well as a number of foreign corporations in Europe and China, are Canada’s most powerful family. The patriarch, Paul Desmarais Sr., has had extremely close business and even family ties to every Canadian Prime Minister since Pierre Trudeau, and all Quebec premiers (save two) in the past several decades. The Desmarais’ have strong links to the Parti Quebecois, the Liberals, Conservatives, and even the NDP, and socialize with presidents and prime ministers around the world, as well as the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and even Spanish royalty. Paul Desmarais Sr. has “a disproportionate influence on politics and the economy in Quebec and Canada,” and he especially “has a lot of influence on Premier Jean Charest.” When former French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave Desmarais the French Legion of Honour, Desmarais brought Jean Charest with him. Quebec author Robin Philpot commented that Desmarais “took him along like a poodle,” referring to Charest. The Desmarais family has extensive ties to Canadian and especially Quebec politicians, have extensive interests in Canadian and international corporations and banks, are closely tied to major national and international think tanks (including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberg Group), and even host an annual international think tank conference in Montreal, the Conference of Montreal. The Desmarais family have had very close ties to Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin, and even Stephen Harper, and to Quebec premiers, including Lucien Bouchard, who co-authored the article in the Gazette advocating increased tuition. The Desmarais empire also includes ownership of seven of the ten French newspapers in Quebec, including La Presse. The Desmarais family stand atop a parasitic Canadian oligarchy, which has bankers and corporate executives controlling the entire economy, political parties, the media, think tanks which set policy, and even our educational institutions, with the chancellors of both Concordia and McGill universities serving on the boards of the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada, respectively, as well as both schools having extensive leadership ties to Power Corporation and the Desmarais family. It is this very oligarchy which demands the people pay more, go further into debt, suffer and descend into poverty, while they make record profits. In March of 2012, Power Corporation reported fourth quarter profits of $314 million, with yearly earnings at over $1.1 billion. Canada’s banks last year made record profits, and then decided to increase bank fees. At the end of April, it was reported that Canada’s banks had received a “secret bailout” back in 2008/09, from both the Bank of Canada and the U.S. Federal Reserve, amounting to roughly $114 billion, or $3,400 for every Canadian man, woman, and child (more than the cost of yearly tuition in Quebec). And yet Quebec youth are told we suffer from “entitlement.” And now banks are expected to be making even more profits, as reported in early May. As banks make more record profits, Canadians are going deeper into debt. The big Canadian banks, along with the federal government, have colluded to create a massive housing bubble in Canada, most especially in Toronto and Vancouver, and with average Canadian household debt at $103,000, most of which is held in mortgages, and with the Bank of Canada announcing its intent to raise interest rates, Canada is set for a housing crisis like that seen in the United States in 2008, forcing the people to suffer while the banks make a profit. The head of the Bank of Canada (a former Goldman Sachs executive) said that Canadian household debt is the biggest threat to the Canadian economy, but don’t worry, Canada’s Finance Minister said he is working in close cooperation with the big banks to intervene in the housing market if necessary, which would likely mean another bailout for the big banks, and of course, hand the check to you! So, Canada has its priorities: every single Canadian man, woman, and child owes $3,400 for a secret bank bailout to banks that are now making record profits and increasing their fees, while simultaneously explaining that there is no money for education, so we will have to pay more for that, too, which is something those same banks demand our governments do to us. When the students stand up, they are said to be “brats” and whining about “entitlements.” But then, what does that make the banks? This is why I argue that Canada’s elites are parasitic in their very nature, slowly draining the host (that’s us!) of its life until there is nothing left the extract.

9) The student strike is being subjected to a massive and highly successful propaganda campaign to discredit, dismiss, and demonize the students: In the vast majority of coverage on the student strike and protests in Quebec, the media and its many talking heads have undertaken a major propaganda campaign against the students. The students have been consistently ignored, dismissed, derided, insulted and attacked. One Canadian newspaper said it was “hard to feel sorry” for Quebec students, who were “whining and crying” and “kicking up a fuss,” treating Canada’s young generation like ungrateful children throwing a collective tantrum. In almost every article about the student strike, the main point brought up to dismiss the students is that Quebec has the lowest tuition costs in North America. The National Post published a column written by a third-year political science student at McGill University in Montreal stating that, “Quebec students must pay their share,” and advised people to “ignore the overheated rhetoric from student strikers,” and that, “Jean Charest must go full steam ahead.” The student author, Brendan Steven, is co-founder of McGill’s Moderate Political Action Committee (ModPAC), which is an organizing mobilizing McGill students in opposition to the strike. Steven’s organization attacked striking student associations as “illegitimate, unconstitutional shams” and attacked the democratic functioning of other student associations holding general assemblies. Steven complained that the democratic general assemblies “are being invented on a whim.” Brendan Steven not only gets to write columns for the National Post, but gets interviewed on CBC. Steven’s anti-strike group sent a letter to the McGill administration complaining about pro-strike students on the campus, writing, “This group violates our democratic right to access an education without fear of harm,” and added: “We are demanding the McGill administration take action against this minority group before the current conflicts escalate into disasters. They have proven they will not remain peaceful.” As a lap-dog boot-licking power worshipper, Brendan Steven has a future for himself in politics, that’s for sure! Back in January, Steven wrote an article for the Huffington Post in which he explained that the reason why CEOs get paid so much is because “they’re worth it.” He referred to Milton Friedman – the father of neoliberalism – as a “great economic thinker.” Back in November of 2011, Steven wrote an article for the McGill Daily entitled, “Do not demonize authorities,” and then went on to justify police violence against protesting students engaged in an occupation of a school building, which he characterized as “an inherently hostile act.” Steven later got an opportunity to appear on CBC’s The Current. Margaret Wente, writing for the Globe and Mail, wrote that, “It’s a little hard for the rest of us to muster sympathy for Quebec’s downtrodden students, who pay the lowest tuition fees in all of North America.” She then referred to the striking students as “the baristas of tomorrow and they don’t even know it.” Wente then attempted to explain the Quebec students by writing: “Now I get it: The kids are on another planet.” Interesting how she used the word “kids” to just add a little extra condescension. But it seems clear that Wente “gets” very little. In an August 2011 column, Wente tried to explain why poor black communities in Britain and America were experiencing riots and gang activity, placing blame on “single-mothers” and “family breakdown,” and explained that, “Rootless, unmoored young men with no stake in society are a major threat to social order.” Explaining this demographic in economic terms, Wente wrote: “They are, quite simply, surplus to requirements.” In another column, Wente argued that helping deliver much-needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza would “enable terrorists.” Wente also wrote an article entitled, “The poor are doing better than you think,” suggesting that it’s not so bad for poor people because they have air conditioning, DVD players, and cable TV. Wente has been consistently critical of the Occupy movement, and suggested in another article that, “the biggest economic challenge we face today is not income inequality, greedy corporations, Wall Street corruption or the concentration of wealth among the top 1 per cent. It’s the increasing failure of young men with high-school degrees or less to latch on to the world of work.” Of course, in Wente’s world, the inability of young men to get a job has nothing to do with income inequality, greedy corporations, Wall Street corruption or the concentration of wealth. In another article criticizing the Occupy movement, Wente managed to argue that it was not Wall Street and bankers that have destroyed the economy and left people without jobs, but rather what she refers to as the “virtueocracy,” blaming unions, single mothers who gets masters degrees in social sciences, and people who want to work at NGOs and non-profits, doing “transformational, world-saving work.” So it’s Wente’s “insightful” voice which is “informing” Canadians about the student movement in Quebec. Other Canadian publications writing about the Quebec student strike have headlines like, “Reality check for the entitled,” repeating the idiotic argument that because Quebec students pay less than the rest of Canada, they shouldn’t be “complaining” about the hikes. Andrew Coyne wrote a syndicated column in which he claimed that, “Quebec students know violence works,” framing the protest at which police almost killed two students as an action “of general rage the students had promised.” With no mention of the student who lost an eye, or the other student who ended up in the hospital with critical head injuries, Coyne talked about a cop who “was beaten savagely” and “lay helpless on the ground.” No mention, of course, of the police truck that drove into a group of students moments later, or the fact that the cop who was “beaten savagely” got away with minor injuries, unlike the students who were shot in the face with rubber bullets. By simply omitting police brutality and violence, Coyne presented the student movement as itself inherently violent, instead of at times erupting in violent reactions to state violence, which is far more extreme in every case. The Toronto Sun even had an article which claimed that the students have employed tactics of “thuggery” and “violent criminal behaviour.” Publications regularly ask their readers if Quebec students have “legitimate” grievances, if they are fighting for “social justice,” or if they are just “spoiled brats.” A syndicated column from the Vancouver Sun by Licia Corbella was titled, “How rioting students help make me grateful.” She discussed her latest visit to church where the pastor advised: “Parents, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them,” and mentioned how parents anger their children by “belittling them, underestimating them and not treating them as individuals.” Corbella then took particular note of how parents provoke and enrage children “when we give them a sense of entitlement.” With the word “entitlement,” Corbella naturally then began thinking about Quebec students, as according to Corbella’s pastor, “entitlement leads to rage.” Corbella wrote that rioting “is, in essence, what a spoiled two-year-old would do if they had the ability.” She further wrote: “In Quebec, these entitled youth, who believe the rest of society MUST provide them with an almost free education or else, have blocked other students from accessing the educations they paid for, burned vehicles, smashed shop windows, looted property and severely beaten up a police officer who got separated from the rest of his colleagues.” Again, no mention of the two students who were almost killed by police at the same event. Corbella quoted someone interviewed on TV, endorsing the claim that the student protests are “starting to resemble terrorism,” though she took issue with the word “starting.” This is the result of creating, according to Corbell, “an entitlement society.” Apparently, the pastor’s lesson about not “belittling” the young did not sink in with Corbella. An article in the Chronicle Herald asked, “What planet are these kids on?” The author then wrote that, “the irony is that these students now want the system to accommodate their desires and for someone else to pay the bill,” and that, “students should stop making foolish demands.” Other articles claim that students “need a lesson in economics.” After all, the fact that the majority of economists, fully armed with “lessons in economics,” were unable to predict the massive global economic crisis in 2008, should obviously not lead to any questioning of the ideology of modern economic theory. No, it would be better for students to learn about the ocean from those who couldn’t see a tsunami as it approached the beach. Another article, written by a former speechwriter to the Prime Minister of Canada, wrote that the student arguments were vacuous and that the youth were in a “state of complete denial.” Rex Murphy, a commentator with the National Post and CBC, referred to the student strike as “short-sighted” and that student actions were “crude attempts at precipitating a crisis.” Student actions, he claimed, were the “actions of a mob” and were “simply wrong,” and thus, should be “condemned.” The CBC has been particularly terrible in their coverage of the student movement. With few exceptions, the Canadian media have established a consensus in opposition to the student protests, and use techniques of omission, distortion, or outright condemnation in order to promote a distinctly anti-student stance.

10) The student movement is part of a much larger emerging global movement of resistance against austerity, neoliberalism, and corrupt power: In the coverage and discourse about the student movement, very little context is given in placing this student movement in a wider global context. The British newspaper, The Guardian, acknowledged this context, commenting on the red squares worn by striking students (a symbol of going squarely into the red, into debt), explaining that they have “become a symbol of the most powerful challenge to neoliberalism on the continent.” The article also adopted the term promoted by the student movement itself to describe the wider social context of the protests, calling it the “Maple Spring.” The author placed the fight against tuition increases in the context of a struggle against austerity measures worldwide, writing: “Forcing students to pay more for education is part of a transfer of wealth from the poor and middle-class to the rich – as with privatization and the state’s withdrawal from service-provision, tax breaks for corporations and deep cuts to social programs.” The article noted how the student movement has linked up with civic groups against a Quebec government plan to subsidize mining companies in exploiting the natural resources of Northern Quebec (Plan Nord), taking land from indigenous peoples to give to multibillion dollar corporations. As one of the student leaders stated, the protest was about more than tuition and was aimed at the elite class itself, “Those people are a single elite, a greedy elite, a corrupt elite, a vulgar elite, an elite that only sees education as an investment in human capital, that only sees a tree as a piece of paper and only sees a child as a future employee.” The student strike has thus become a social movement. The protests aim at economic disruption through civil disobedience, and have garnered the support of thousands of protesters, and 200,000 protesters on March 22, and close to 300,000 on April 22. Protests have blocked entrances to banks, disrupted a conference for the Plan Nord exploitation, linking the movement with indigenous and environmental groups. It was only when the movement began to align with other social movements and issues that the government even accepted the possibility of speaking to students. Unions have also increasingly been supporting the student strike, including with large financial contributions. Though, the large union support for the student movement was also involved in attempted co-optation and undermining of the students. At the negotiations between the government and the students, the union leaders convinced the student leaders to accept the deal, which met none of the student demands and kept the tuition increases intact. There was a risk that the major unions were essentially aiming to undermine the student movement. But the student groups, which had to submit the agreement to democratic votes, rejected the horrible government offer. Thus the Maple Spring continues. Quebec is not the only location with student protests taking place. In Chile, a massive student movement has emerged and developed over the past year, changing the politics of the country and challenging the elites and the society they have built for their own benefit. One of the leaders of the Chilean student movement is a 23-year old young woman, Camila Vallejo, who has attained celebrity status. In Quebec’s student movement, the most visible and vocal leader is 21-year old Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who has also achieved something of celebrity status within the province. Just as in Quebec, student protests in Chile are met with state violence, though in the Latin American country, the apparatus of state violence is the remnants of a U.S.-supported military dictatorship. Still, this does not stop tens of thousands of students going out into the streets in Santiago, as recently as late April. Protests by students have also been emerging elsewhere, often in cooperation and solidarity with the Occupy movement and other anti-austerity protests. Silent protests are emerging at American universities where students are protesting their massive debts. California students have been increasingly protesting increased tuition costs. Student protests at UC Berkeley ended with 12 citations for trespassing. Some students in California have even begun a hunger strike against tuition increases. In Brooklyn, New York, students protesting against tuition increases, many of them wearing the Quebec “red square” symbol, were assaulted by police officers. Even high school students in New York have been protesting. Israeli social activists are back on the streets protesting against austerity measures. An Occupy group has resumed protests in London. The Spanish indignado movement, which began in May of 2011, saw a resurgence on the one year anniversary, with another round of anti-austerity protests in Spain, bringing tens of thousands of protesters, mostly youths, out into the streets of Madrid, and more than 100,000 across the country. Their protest was met with police repression. Increasingly, students, the Occupy movement, and other social groups are uniting in protests against the costs of higher education and the debts of students. This is indeed the context in which the ‘Maple Spring’ – the Quebec student movement – should be placed, as part of a much broader global anti-austerity movement.

So march on, students. Show Quebec, Canada, and the world what it takes to oppose parasitic elites, mafia-connected politicians, billionaire bankers, and seek to change a social, political, and economic system that benefits the few at the expense of the many.

Since this article was published, the Québec legislature signed a special “emergency law” last Friday to restore order. Bill 78 suspends the school semester for schools most affected by the strike, it establishes extremely high fines for anyone who attempts to picket or block access to schools, and it imposes massive restrictions on where and how people may demonstrate and protest in the streets. The law is set to expire by July 1, 2013.

Many of are shocked by Bill 78 and question its legality. It basically attacks Canadians' rights to freedom of assembly, expression, and conscience. The students will challenge this bill in court next week. Representatives of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec and the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec will be backed by a non-profit legal clinic.

"Last week, the Quebec Bar Association made a statement against Bill 78. Speaking to The Gazette, Louis Masson, Bâtonnier of the Bar, said Bill 78 does not balance rights, suggesting the government should have taken another course to deal with the tuition-fee dispute.

“We have serious concerns about this bill and the bill infringes many of the fundamental rights of our citizens,” Masson said." SOURCE

While I regret any harm which has come to individuals on both sides, it has been with some cynical satisfaction that I have witnessed how the masters of war, anxious always to fly all over the world to preserve democracy and the common man's right to induce "Spring" - the Arab Spring being the latest - will whip out the double standard along with their batons when their own populations take to the streets. Will NATO intervene to assist this Canadian"Maple Spring" as it is being called? Is NATO intervening in support of the protestors in Chicago at the NATO Summit as I write this.

Long live youth and their energy and idealism! The struggle is global.

I first posted the lyrics for this song on 2/26/06 and I am reposting it today after listening with pleasure to David Emmanuel Henry's earnest performance uploaded three years after on YouTube.

Something about the gentle, uplifting message and incantatory tone of this poem captured this gull’s heart. The assertion that Trinbago will be nice again, is not the product of a lazy optimism of the “God is a Trini” variety, but is prefaced by conditions, concrete suggestions for how we can bring about this change to make Trinbago nice again. I cannot say that God is a Trini but we carry the name of the Trinity/Trikuta. He must be noting with some embarrassment and displeasure that some of us are not trying very hard to help ourselves.

David directs our attention to what he considers to be the issues at the heart of our problems: racism, disrespect, wrong choices, a lack of foresight, the expectation that we will reap what we have not sown, neglecting our responsibility to instill the right habits and values in our children, a lack of vigilance and swift punishment for wrongdoing, insufficient or total lack of recognition of the efforts of good citizens, the tendencies to find excuses to explain our failures and to point the finger of blame at others, and the pursuit of individual advancement at the expense of a spirit of community and love for each other.

So many people are throwing up their hands, walking away or going to the other extreme of calling down the vengeance of Moko upon this nation, when the solution is the simplest thing of all – Much More Love. Love in the home, love in the communities, love in the corridors of power. Of one thing we can be certain, the man who can calculatingly make decisions that will injure his people, or who can take up a weapon in cold blood to murder his brother, did not in his lifetime, receive the love and care that some of us can take for granted, not in his home, not from his teachers, and not from his fellow man. Just take a moment to think about it, really think about it. Put aside the anger and the hurt and the despair and the understandable need to blame, and think about it.

Today, I am flying to Carupano. That’s to the southwest of us, on the coast of Venezuela. Two of my gull pals will accompany me. We like to do that every now and again. We go, stay for a day or so and then start back for Los Iros. We do it just for the immense pleasure of being greeted on our return by the beautiful, green hills, and the coastline of our Trinidad. Sometimes, you have to lose something before you realize what you let slip away. Sometimes, you have to leave, so that you can really come back home. Sometimes, you have to step back from the things that distract and dismay, to regain your focus.

Hold on. Don’t give up. Don’t give in.

Blessed is all of creationBlessed be my beautiful peopleBlessed be the day of our awakeningBlessed is my countryBlessed are her patient hills.

The thinker Muammar Qathafi does not present his thought for simple amusement or pleasure. Nor is it for those who regard ideas as puzzles for the entertainment of empty-minded people standing on the margin of life. Qathafi's ideas interpret life as it erupts from the heart of the tormented, the oppressed, the deprived and the grief-stricken. It flows from the ever-developing and conflicting reality in search of whatever is best and most beautiful. Part One of The Green Book heralded the start of the era of the Jamahiriyat (state of the masses). The Green Book, Part II concentrates on finding an ultimate solution to the world's economic problems. For many years, we have all been torn by conflicting kinds of theories, whether of liberalism, communism or capitalism. After directing his attention to purely political matters as he did in Part I of The Green Book Colonel Muammar Al-Qathafi, the Leader of the Great 1st of September Revolution, now offers his conclusions on the way in which the world's economic problems can be solved. The author preaches the emancipation of servants in a social revolution against need which has made them the serfs of the twentieth century. He emphasises the necessity for the partnership of all workers in the means of production, liberating them finally from exploitation. Part Three of The Green Book launches the social revolution. It presents the genuine interpretation of history, the solution of man's struggle in life and the unsolved problem of man and woman. Equally it tackles the problem of the minorities and the blacks in order to lay down the sound principles of social life for all mankind. The living philosophy is inseparable from life itself and erupts from its essence. It is the philosophy of Muammar Qathafi.
— The Publisher

PART ONE - THE INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT

The instrument of government is the prime political problem confronting human communities (The problem of the instrument of government entails questions of the following kind. What form should the exercise of authority assume? How ought societies to organize themselves politically in the modern world?)

Even conflict within the family is often the result of the failure to resolve this problem of authority. It has clearly become more serious with the emergence of modern societies.

People today face this persistent question in new and pressing ways. Communities are exposed to the risks of uncertainty, and suffer the grave consequences of wrong answers.Yet none has succeeded in answering it conclusively and democratically. THE GREEN BOOK presents the ultimate solution to the problem of the proper instrument of government.

All political systems in the world today are a product of the struggle for power between alternative instruments of government. This struggle may be peaceful or armed, as is evidenced among classes, sects, tribes, parties or individuals. The outcome is always the victory of a particular governing structure - be it that of an individual, group, party or class- and the defeat of the people; that is, the defeat of genuine democracy.

Political struggle that results in the victory of a candidate with, for example, 51 per cent of the votes leads to a dictatorial governing body in the guise of a false democracy, since 49 percent of the electorate is ruled by an instrument of government they did not vote for, but which has been imposed upon them. Such is dictatorship. Besides, this political conflict may produce a governing body that represents only a minority. For when votes are distributed among several candidates, though one polls more than any other, the sum of the votes received by those who received fewer votes might well constitute an overwhelming majority. However, the candidate with fewer votes wins and his success is regarded as legitimate and democratic! In actual fact, dictatorship is established under the

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cover of false democracy. This is the reality of the political systems prevailing in the world today. They are dictatorial systems and it is evident that they falsify genuine democracy.

PARLIAMENTS

Parliaments are the backbone of that conventional democracy prevailing in the world today. Parliament is a misrepresentation of the people, and parliamentary systems are a false solution to the problem of democracy. A parliament is originally founded to represent the people, but this in itself is undemocratic as democracy means the authority of the people and not an authority acting on their behalf. The mere existence of a parliament means the absence of the people. True democracy exists only through the direct participation of the people, and not through the activity of their representatives. Parliaments have been a legal barrier between the people and the exercise of authority, excluding the masses from meaningful politics and monopolizing sovereignty in their place. People are left with only a facade of democracy, manifested in long queues to cast their election ballots.

To lay bare the character of parliaments, one has to examine their origin. They are either elected from constituencies, a party, or a coalition of parties, or are appointed. But all of these procedures are undemocratic, for dividing the population into constituencies means that one member of parliament represents thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of people, depending on the size of the population. It also means that a member keeps few popular organizational links with the electors since he, like other members, is considered a representative of the whole people. This is what the prevailing traditional democracy requires. The masses are completely isolated from the representative and he, in turn, istotally removed from them. Immediately after winning the electors' votes the representative takes over the people's sovereignty and acts on their behalf. The prevailing traditional democracy endows the member of parliament with a sacredness and immunity which are denied to the rest of the people. Parliaments, therefore, have become a means of plundering and usurping the authority of the people. It has thus become the right of the people to struggle, through popular revolution, to destroy such instruments - the so-called parliamentary assemblies which usurp democracy and sovereignty, and which stifle the will of the people. The masses have the right to proclaim reverberantly the new principle: no representation in lieu of the people.

If parliament is formed from one party as a result of its winning an election, it becomes a parliament of the winning party and not of the people. It represents the party and not the people, and the executive power of the parliament becomes that of the victorious party and not of the people. The same is true of the parliament of proportional representation in which each party holds a number of seats proportional to their success in the popular vote. The members of the parliament represent their respective parties and not the people, and the power established by such a coalition is the power of the combined parties and not that of the people. Under such systems, the people are the victims whose votes are vied for by exploitative competing factions who dupe the people into political circuses that are outwardly noisy and frantic, but inwardly powerless and irrelevant. Alternatively, the people are seduced into standing in long, apathetic, silent queues to cast their ballots in the same way that they throw waste paper into dustbins. This is the traditional democracy prevalent in the whole world, whether it is represented by a one-party, two-party, multiparty or non-party system. Thus it is clear that representation is a fraud.

Moreover, since the system of elected parliaments is based on propaganda to win votes, it is a demagogic system in the real sense of the word. Votes can be bought and falsified. Poor people are unable to compete in the election campaigns, and the result is that only the rich get elected. Assemblies constituted by appointment or hereditary succession do not fall under any form of democracy.2

Philosophers, thinkers, and writers advocated the theory of representative parliaments at a time when peoples were unconsciously herded like sheep by kings, sultans and conquerors. The ultimate aspiration of the people of those times was to have someone to represent them before such rulers. When even this aspiration was rejected, people waged bitter and protracted struggle to attain this goal.

After the successful establishment of the age of the republics and the beginning of the era of the masses, it is unthinkable that democracy should mean the electing of only a few representatives to act on behalf of great masses. This is an obsolete structure. Authority must be in the hands of all of the people.

The most tyrannical dictatorships the world has known have existed under the aegis of parliaments.

THE PARTY

The party is a contemporary form of dictatorship. It is the modern instrument of dictatorial government. The party is the rule of a part over the whole. As a party is not an individual, it creates a superficial democracy by establishing assemblies, committees, and propaganda through its members. The party is not a democratic instrument because it is composed only of those people who have common interests, a common perception or a shared culture; or those who belong to the same region or share the same belief. They form a party to achieve their ends, impose their will, or extend the dominion of their beliefs, values, and interests to the society as a whole. A party's aim is to achieve power under the pretext of carrying out its program. Democratically, none of these parties should govern a whole people who constitute a diversity of interests, ideas, temperaments, regions and beliefs. The party is a dictatorial instrument of government that enables those with common outlooks or interests to rule the people as a whole. Within the community, the party represents a minority.

The purpose of forming a party is to create an instrument to rule the people, i.e., to rule over non-members of the party. The party is, fundamentally, based on an arbitrary authoritarian concept - the domination of the members of the party over the rest of the people. The party presupposes that its accession to power is the way to attain its ends, and assumes that its objectives are also those of the people. This is the theory justifying party dictatorship, and is the basis of any dictatorship. No matter how many parties exist, the theory remains valid.

The existence of many parties intensifies the struggle for power, and this results in the neglect of any achievements for the people and of any socially beneficial plans. Such actions are presented as a justification to undermine the position of the ruling party so that an opposing party can replace it. The parties very seldom resort to arms in their struggle but, rather, denounce and denigrate the actions of each other. This is a battle which is inevitably waged at the expense of the higher, vital interests of the society. Some, if not all, of those higher interests will fall prey to the struggle for power between instruments of government, for the destruction of those interests supports the opposition in their argument against the ruling party or parties. In order to rule, the opposition party has to defeat the existing instrument of government.

To do so, the opposition must minimize the government's achievements and cast doubt on its plans, even though those plans may be beneficial to the society. Consequently, the interests and programs of the society become the victims of the parties' struggle for power. Such struggle is, therefore, politically, socially, and economically destructive to thesociety, despite the fact that it creates political activity.

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Thus, the struggle results in the victory of another instrument of government; the fall of one party, and the rise of another. It is, in fact, a defeat for the people, i.e., a defeat for democracy. Furthermore, parties can be bribed and corrupted either from inside or outside.

Originally, the party is formed ostensibly to represent the people. Subsequently, the party leadership becomes representative of the membership, and the leader represents the party elite. It becomes clear that this partisan game is a deceitful farce based on a false form of democracy. It has a selfish authoritarian character based on maneuvres, intrigues andpolitical games. This confirms the fact that the party system is a modern instrument of dictatorship. The party system is an outright, unconvincing dictatorship, one which the world has not yet surpassed. It is, in fact, the dictatorship of the modern age.

The parliament of the winning party is indeed a parliament of the party, for the executive power formed by this parliament is the power of the party over the people. Party power,which is supposedly for the good of the whole people, is actually the arch-enemy of a fraction of the people, namely, the opposition party or parties and their supporters. The opposition is, therefore, not a popular check on the ruling party but, rather, is itself opportunistically seeking to replace the ruling party. According to modern democracy, the legitimate check on the ruling party is the parliament, the majority of whose members are from that ruling party. That is to say, control is in the hands of the ruling party, and power is in the hands of the controlling party. Thus the deception, falseness and invalidity of the political theories dominant in the world today become obvious. From these emerge contemporary conventional democracy.

"The party represents a segment of the people, but the sovereignty of the people is indivisible."

"The party allegedly governs on behalf of the people, but in reality the true principle of democracy is based upon the notion that there can be no representation in lieu of the people."

The party system is the modern equivalent of the tribal or sectarian system. A society governed by one party is similar to one which is governed by one tribe or one sect. The party, as shown, represents the perception of a certain group of people, or the interests of one group in society, or one belief, or one region. Such a party is a minority compared with the whole people, just as the tribe and the sect are. The minority has narrow, common sectarian interests and beliefs, from which a common outlook is formed. Only the blood relationship distinguishes a tribe from a party, and, indeed, a tribe might also be the basis for the foundation of a party. There is no difference between party struggle and tribal or sectarian struggles for power. Just as tribal and sectarian rule is politically unacceptable and inappropriate, likewise the rule under a party system. Both follow the same path and lead to the same end. The negative and destructive effects of the tribal or sectarian struggle on society is identical to the negative and destructive effects of the party struggle.

CLASS

The political class system is the same as a party, tribal, or sectarian system since a class dominates society in the same way that a party, tribe or sect would. Classes, like parties, sects or tribes, are groups of people within society who share common interests. Common interests arise from the existence of a group of people bound together by blood relationship, belief, culture, locality or standard of living. Classes, parties, sects and tribes emerge because blood-relationship, social rank, economic interest, standard of living,

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belief, culture and locality create a common outlook to achieve a common end. Thus, social structures, in the form of classes, parties, tribes or sects, emerge. These eventually develop into political entities directed toward the realization of the goals of that group. Inall cases, the people are neither the class, the party, the tribe, nor the sect, for these areno more than a segment of the people and constitute a minority. If a class, a party, a tribe, or a sect dominates a society, then the dominant system becomes a dictatorship. However, a class or a tribal coalition is preferable to a party coalition since societies originally consisted of tribal communities. One seldom finds a group of people who do not belong to a tribe, and all people belong to a specific class. But no party or parties embrace all of the people, and therefore the party or party coalition represents a minority compared to the masses outside their membership. Under genuine democracy, there can be no justification for any one class to subdue other classes for its interests. Similarly, no party, tribe or sect can crush others for their own interests.

To allow such actions abandons the logic of democracy and justifies resort to the use offorce. Such policies of suppression are dictatorial because they are not in the interest of the whole society, which consists of more than one class, tribe or sect, or the members of one party. There is no justification for such actions, though the dictatorial argument is that society actually consists of numerous segments, one of which must undertake the liquidation of others in order to remain solely in power. This exercise is not, accordingly, in the interests of the whole society but, rather, in the interests of a specific class, tribe, sect, party, or those who claim to speak for the society. Such an act is basically aimed at the member of the society who does not belong to the party, class, tribe or sect which carries out the liquidation.

A society torn apart by party feud is similar to one which is torn apart by tribal or sectarian conflicts.

A party that is formed in the name of a class inevitably becomes a substitute for that class and continues in the process of spontaneous transformation until it becomes hostile to the class that it replaces.

Any class which inherits a society also inherits its characteristics. If the working class, for example, subdues all other classes of a particular society, it then becomes its only heir and forms its material and social base. The heir acquires the traits of those from whom it inherits, though this may not be evident all at once. With the passage of time, characteristics of the other eliminated classes will emerge within the ranks of the working class itself. The members of the new society will assume the attitudes and perspectives appropriate to their newly evolved characteristics. Thus, the working class will develop a separate society possessing all of the contradictions of the old society. In the first stage, the material standard and importance of the members become unequal. Thereafter, groups emerge which automatically become classes that are the same as the classes that were eliminated. Thus, the struggle for domination of the society begins again. Each group of people, each faction, and each new class will all vie to become the instrument of government.

Being social in nature, the material base of any society is changeable. The instrument of government of this material base may be sustained for some time, but it will eventual become obsolete as new material and social standards evolve to form a new material base. Any society which undergoes a class conflict may at one time have been a one-class society but, through evolution, inevitably becomes a multi-class society.

The class that expropriates and acquires the possession of others to maintain power for itself will soon find that, through evolution, it will be itself subject to change as though it were the society as a whole.5

In summary, all attempts at unifying the material base of a society in order to solve the problem of government, or at putting an end to the struggle in favour of a party, class, sector tribe have failed. All endeavours aimed at appeasing the masses through the election of representatives or through parliaments have equally failed. To continue such practices would be a waste of time and a mockery of the people.

PLEBISCITES

Plebiscites are a fraud against democracy. Those who vote "yes" or "no" do not, in fact, express their free will but, rather, are silenced by the modern conception of democracy as they are not allowed to say more than "yes" or "no". Such a system is oppressive and tyrannical. Those who vote "no" should express their reasons and why they did not say"yes", and those who say "yes" should verify such agreement and why they did not vote"no". Both should state their wishes and be able to justify their "yes" or "no" vote.

What then, is the path to be taken by humanity in order to conclusively rid itself of the elements of dictatorship and tyranny?

The intricate problem in the case of democracy is reflected in the nature of the instrument of government, which is demonstrated by conflicts of classes, parties and individuals. The elections and plebiscites were invented to cover the failure of these unsuccessful experiments to solve this problem. The solution lies in finding an instrument of government other than those which are subject to conflict and which represent only one faction of society; that is to say, an instrument of government which is not a party class, sect or a tribe, but an instrument of government which is the people as a whole. In other words, we seek an instrument of government which neither represents the people nor speaks in their name.

There can be no representation in lieu of the people and representation is fraud. If such aninstrument can be found, then the problem is solved and true popular democracy isrealized. Thus, humankind would have terminated the eras of tyranny and dictatorships,and replaced them with the authority of the people.

THE GREEN BOOK presents the ultimate solution to the problem of the instrument of government, and indicates for the masses the path upon which they can advance from the age of dictatorship to that of genuine democracy.

This new theory is based on the authority of the people, without representation ordeputation. It achieves direct democracy in an orderly and effective form. It is superior to the older attempts at direct democracy which were impractical because they lacked popular organizations at base levels.

POPULAR CONFERENCES AND PEOPLE'S COMMITTEES

Popular Conferences are the only means to achieve popular democracy. Any system of government contrary to this method, the method of Popular Conferences, is undemocratic.All the prevailing systems of government in the world today will remain undemocratic, unless they adopt this method. Popular Conferences are the end of the journey of the masses in quest of democracy. Popular Conferences and People's Committees are the fruition of the people's struggle fordemocracy. Popular Conferences and People's Committees are not creations of the6

imagination; they are the product of thought which has absorbed all human experiments to achieve democracy.

Direct democracy, if put into practice, is indisputably the ideal method of government.Because it is impossible to gather all people, however small the population, in one place so that they can discuss, discern and decide policies, nations departed from direct democracy, which became an utopian idea detached from reality. It was replaced by various theories of government, such as representative councils, party-coalitions and plebiscites, all of which isolated the masses and prevented them from managing their political affairs.

These instruments of government - the individual, the class, the sect, the tribe, the parliament and the party struggling to achieve power have plundered the sovereignty of the masses and monopolized politics and authority for themselves.

THE GREEN BOOK guides the masses to an unprecedented practical system of direct democracy. No two intelligent people can dispute the fact that direct democracy is the ideal, but until now no practical method for its implementation has been devised. The Third Universal Theory, however, now provides us with a practical approach to direct democracy. The problem of democracy in the world will finally be solved. All that is left before the masses now is the struggle to eliminate all prevailing forms of dictatorial governments, be they parliament, sect, tribe, class, one-party system, two-party system or multi-party system, which falsely call themselves democracies.7

True democracy has but one method and one theory. The dissimilarity and diversity of the systems claiming to be democratic do, in fact, provide evidence that they are not so. Authority of the people has but one face which can only be realized through Popular Conferences and People's Committees. There can be no democracy without Popular Conferences and Committees everywhere.

First, the people are divided into Basic Popular Conferences. Each Basic Popular Conference chooses its secretariat. The secretariats of all Popular Conferences together form Non-Basic Popular Conferences. Subsequently, the masses of the Basic Popular Conferences select administrative People's Committees to replace government administration. All public institutions are run by People's Committees which will be accountable to the Basic Popular Conferences which dictate the policy and supervise its execution. Thus, both the administration and the supervision become the people's and the outdated definition of democracy - democracy is the supervision of the government by the people - becomes obsolete. It will be replaced by the true definition: Democracy is the supervision of the people by the people.

All citizens who are members of these Popular Conferences belong, vocationally and functionally, to various sectors and have, therefore, to form themselves into their own professional Popular Conferences in addition to being, by virtue of citizenship, members of the Basic Popular Conferences or People's Committees. Subjects dealt with by the Popular Conferences and People's Committees will eventually take their final shape in the General People's Congress, which brings together the Secretariats of the Popular Conferences and People's Committees. Resolutions of the General People's Congress, which meets annually or periodically, are passed on to the Popular Conferences and People's Committees, which undertake the execution of those resolutions through the responsible committees, which are, in turn, accountable to the Basic Popular Conferences.

The General People's Congress is not a gathering of persons or members such as those of parliaments but, rather, a gathering of the Popular Conferences and People's Committees.

Thus, the problem of the instrument of government is naturally solved, and all dictatorial instruments disappear. The people become the instrument of government, and the dilemma of democracy in the world is conclusively solved.

THE LAW OF SOCIETY

Law represents the other problem, parallel to that of the instrument of government, which has not been resolved. Although it was dealt with in different periods of history, theproblem still persists today.

For a committee or an assembly to be empowered to draft the law of society is both invalid and undemocratic. It is also invalid and undemocratic for the law of society to beabrogated or amended by individual, a committee, or an assembly.

What then is the law of society? Who drafts it and what is its relevance to democracy?

The natural law of any society is grounded in either tradition (custom) or religion. Any other attempt to draft law outside these two sources is invalid and illogical. Constitutions cannot be considered the law of society. A constitution is fundamentally a (man-made) positive law, and lacks the natural source from which it must derive its justification.8

The problem of freedom in the modern age is that constitutions have become the law of societies. These constitutions are based solely on the premises of the instruments of dictatorial rule prevailing in the world today, ranging from the individual to the party. Proof of this are the differences existing in various constitutions, although human freedom is one and the same. The reason for the differences is the variation in the assumptions and values implicit in diverse instruments of government. This is how freedom becomes vulnerable under contemporary forms of government.

The method by which a specific modality of government seeks to dominate the people is contained in the constitution. The people are compelled to accept it by virtue of the laws derived from that constitution, which is itself the product of the tendencies within particular instruments of governments.

The laws of the dictatorial instruments of government have replaced the natural laws, i.e.,positive law has replaced natural law. Consequently, ethical standards have become confused. The human being is essentially, physically and emotionally, the same everywhere. Because of this fact, natural laws are applicable to all. However, constitutionsas conventional laws do not perceive human beings equally. This view has no justification, except for the fact that it reflects the will of the instrument of government, be it an individual, an assembly, a class or a party. That is why constitutions change when an alteration in the instruments of government takes place, indicating that a constitution is not natural law but reflects the drive of the instrument of government to serve its own purpose.

The abrogation of natural laws from human societies and their replacement by conventional laws is the fundamental danger that threatens freedom. Any ruling system must be made subservient to natural laws, not the reverse.

The fundamental law of society must not be subject to historical drafting or composition. Its importance lies in being the decisive criterion in light of which truth and falsehood, right and wrong, and individual rights and duties can be judged. Freedom is threatened unless society adheres to a sacred law with established rules that are not subject to alteration or change by any instrument of government. It is, rather, the responsibility of the instrument of government to adhere to the laws of society. Unfortunately, people the world over are currently ruled by manmade laws that can be changed or abrogated, depending upon the struggle for power among competing forms of government.

Conducting plebiscites on constitutions is often insufficient. Plebiscites are essentially acounterfeit of democracy since a "yes" or "no" is the only option. Moreover, under manmade law, people are compelled to vote on these plebiscites. Conducting a plebiscite on aconstitution does not necessarily make the constitution the law of society. In other words, the status of a constitution will not be altered by a plebiscite; it will remain no more than the subject of a plebiscite.

The law of society is an eternal human heritage that does not belong only to the living. Therefore, drafting a constitution or conducting a plebiscite on it is a mockery.

The catalogues of man-made laws emanating from man-made constitutions are fraught with physical penalties directed against human beings, while tradition contains few such measures. Tradition lays down moral, non-physical penalties that conform to the intrinsic nature of humanity. Religion contains tradition and absorbs it; and tradition is amanifestation of the natural life of people. Its teachings comprise basic social guidelinesand answers to the fundamental questions of existence.9

Most physical penalties are deferred to a future judgment. This is the most appropriate lawaffording due respect to the human being. Religion does not provide for prompt penalties, save in certain compelling instances necessary to the well-being of society.

Religion contains tradition, and tradition is an expression of the natural life of the people. Therefore, religion is an affirmation of natural laws which are discerned therein. Laws which are not premised on religion and tradition are merely an invention by man to be used against his fellow man. Consequently, such laws are invalid because they do not emanate from the natural source of tradition and religion.
WHO SUPERVISES THE CONDUCT OF SOCIETY?

The question arises: who has the right to supervise society, and to point out deviationsthat may occur from the laws of society? Democratically, no one group can claim this righton behalf of society. Therefore, society alone supervises itself. It is dictatorial for anyindividual or group to claim the right of the supervision of the laws of the society, whichis, democratically, the responsibility of the society as a whole. This can be arrived atthrough the democratic instrument of government that results from the organization of thesociety itself into Basic Popular Conferences, and through the government of thesepeople through People's Committees and the General People's Congress - the nationalcongress - where Secretariats of the Popular Conferences and the People's Committeesconvene. In accordance with this theory, the people become the instrument of governmentand, in turn, become their own supervisors. Society thus secures self-supervision over itslaws.

HOW CAN SOCIETY REDIRECT ITS COURSE WHEN DEVIATIONS FROMITS LAWS OCCUR?

If the instrument of government is dictatorial, as is the case in the world's political systems today, society's awareness of deviation from its laws is expressed only through violence to redirect its course, i.e., revolution against the instrument of government.Violence and revolution, even though they reflect the sentiments of society regarding deviation, do not constitute an exercise in which the whole of society takes part. Rather, violence and revolution are carried out by those who have the capability and courage to take the initiative and proclaim the will of society. However, this unilateral approach is dictatorial because the revolutionary initiative in itself provides the opportunity for a new instrument of government representing the people to arise. This means that the governing structure remains dictatorial. In addition, violence and effecting change by force are both undemocratic, even though they take place as a reaction against an undemocratic prior condition. The society that revolves around this concept is backward. What, then, is thesolution?

The solution lies in the people being themselves the instrument of government whose authority is derived from Basic Popular Conferences and the General People's Congress; in eliminating government administration and replacing it by People's Committees; and finally, in the General People's Congress becoming a truly national convention where Basic Popular Conferences and People's Committees convene.

In such a system, if deviation takes place, it is then rectified by a total democratic revision, and not through the use of force. The process here is not a voluntary option for social change and treatment of social ills. It is, rather, an inevitable result of the nature of this democratic system because, in such a case, there is no outside group who can be held responsible for such deviation or against whom violence can be directed.10

THE PRESS

An individual has the right to express himself or herself even if he or she behaves irrationally to demonstrate his or her insanity. Corporate bodies too have the right to express their corporate identity. The former represent only themselves and the latter represent those who share their corporate identity. Since society consists of private individuals and corporate bodies, the expression, for example, by an individual of his or her insanity does not mean that the other members of society are insane. Such expression reflects only in the individual's character. Likewise, corporate expression reflects only the interest or view of those making up the corporate body. For instance, a tobacco company, despite the fact that what it produces is harmful to health, expresses the interests of those who make up the company.

The press is a means of expression for society: it is not a means of expression for private individuals or corporate bodies. Therefore, logically and democratically, it should not belong to either one of them.

A newspaper owned by any individual is his or her own, and expresses only his or herpoint of view. Any claim that a newspaper represents public opinion is groundless because it actually expresses the viewpoint of that private individual. Democratically, private individuals should not be permitted to own any public means of publication or information. However, they have the right to express themselves by any means, evenirrationally, to prove their insanity. Any journal issued by a professional sector, forexample, is only a means of expression of that particular social group. It presents theirown points of view and not that of the general public. This applies to all other corporateand private individuals in society.

The democratic press is that which is issued by a People's Committee, comprising all thegroups of society. Only in this case, and not otherwise, will the press or any otherinformation medium be democratic, expressing the viewpoints of the whole society, andrepresenting all its groups.

If medical professionals issue a journal, it must be purely medical. Similarly, this appliesto other groups. Private individuals have the right to express only their own, and notanyone else's opinions.

What is known as the problem of the freedom of the press in the world will be radically anddemocratically solved. Because it is by-product of the problem of democracy generally,the problem of freedom of the press cannot be solved independently of that of democracyin society as a whole. Therefore, the only solution to the persistent problem of democracyis through The Third Universal Theory.

According to this theory, the democratic system is a cohesive structure whosefoundations are firmly laid on Basic Popular Conferences and People's Committees whichconvene in a General People's Congress. This is absolutely the only form of genuinedemocratic society.

In summary, the era of the masses, which follows the age of the republics, excites thefeelings and dazzles the eyes. But even though the vision of this era denotes genuinefreedom of the masses and their happy emancipation from the bonds of externalauthoritarian structures, it warns also of the dangers of a period of chaos anddemagoguery, and the threat of a return to the authority of the individual, the sect andparty, instead of the authority of the people.11

Theoretically, this is genuine democracy but, realistically, the strong always rules, i.e., thestronger party in the society is the one that rules.PART TWO - THE ECONOMIC BASIS OF THE THIRD UNIVERSAL THEORY

Important historical developments contributing to the solution of the problem of work and wages - the relationship between producers and owners, workers and employers - have occurred in recent history. These developments include the determination of fixed working hours, overtime pay, leaves, minimal wages, profit sharing, the participation of workers in administration, the banning of arbitrary dismissal, social security, the right to strike, and other provisions contained in labour codes of almost all contemporary legislation. Of no less significance are changes in the realm of ownership, such as the enactment of laws transferring private ownership to the state, and also those limiting income. Despite these not inconsiderable developments in the history of economics, the problem still fundamentally exists, even though it has been made less severe than in past centuriesthrough improvements, refinements and developments that have brought many benefits tothe workers.

However, the economic problem still persists unsolved in the world. Attempts aimed atownership have failed to solve the problems of producers. They are still wage-earners,despite the state ownership which may vary from the extreme right to the extreme left tothe centre of the political spectrum.

Attempts to improve wages were equally significant to those that were aimed at thetransferral of ownership. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, benefits from wagenegotiations secured for workers certain privileges that were guaranteed by legislationand protected by trade unions, thus improving the lot of the workers. As time passed,workers, technicians, and administrators have acquired certain rights which werepreviously unattainable. However, in reality, the economic problem still exists.

Attempts that were aimed at wages were contrived and reformative, and have failed toprovide a solution. They were more of a charity than a recognition of the rights of theworkers.Why do workers receive wages? Because they carry out a production process forthe benefit of others who hire them to produce a certain product. In this case, they do notconsume what they produce; rather, they are compelled to concede their product forwages. Hence, the sound rule: those who produce consume. Wage-earners, howeverimproved their wages may be, are a type of slave.

Wage-earners are but slaves to the masters who hire them. They are temporary slaves,and their slavery lasts as long as they work for wages from employers, be they individualsor the state. The workers' relationship to the owner or the productive establishment, andto their own interests, is similar under all prevailing conditions in the world today,regardless of whether ownership is right or left. Even publicly-owned establishments giveworkers wages as well as other social benefits, similar to the charity endowed by the richowners of economic establishments upon those who work for them.

Unlike the privately-owned establishment where income benefits the owner, the claim thatthe income from the public-owned establishment benefits all of the society, including theworkers, is true only if we take into consideration the general welfare of the society andnot the private well-being of the workers. Further, we would have to assume that thepolitical authority controlling ownership is that of all the people, practised through thePopular Conferences and People's Committees, and not the authority of one class, oneparty, several parties, one sect, tribe, family, individual, or any form of representativeauthority. Failing this, what is received directly by the workers with respect to their own12

interests, in the form of wages, percentage of profits or social benefits, is the same as thatreceived by workers in a private corporation. In both instances, the producers are wageearners,despite the difference in ownership. Thus, this change in ownership has notsolved the problem of the producer's right to benefit directly from what he produces, andnot through the society nor through wages. The proof thereof is the fact that producersare still wage-earners despite the change in this state of ownership.

The ultimate solution lies in abolishing the wage-system, emancipating people from itsbondage and reverting to the natural laws which defined relationships before theemergence of classes, forms of governments and man-made laws. These natural rules arethe only measures that ought to govern human relations.

These natural rules have produced natural socialism based on equality among thecomponents of economic production, and have maintained public consumption almostequal to natural production among individuals. The exploitation of man by man and thepossession by some individuals of more of the general wealth than their needs required isa manifest departure from the natural rule and the beginning of distortion and corruptionin the life of the human community. It heralds the start of the exploitative society.

If we analyse the factors of economic production from ancient times to the present, wealways find that they essentially consist of certain basic production components, i.e., rawmaterials, means of production, and a producer. The natural rule of equality requires thateach of these components receives a share of this production. Because production cannotbe achieved without the essential role of each of these components, it has to be equallydivided amongst them. The preponderance of one of them contravenes the natural rule ofequality and becomes an encroachment upon the others' rights. Thus, each must beawarded an equal share, regardless of the number of components in the process ofproduction. If the components are two, each receives half of the production; if three, thenone-third.

Applying this natural rule to both ancient and modern situations, we arrive at thefollowing. At the stage of manual production, the process of production resulted from rawmaterial and a producer. Later, new means of production were added to the process.Animals, utilized as power units, constitute a good example. Gradually, machines replacedanimals, types and amounts of raw materials evolved from the simple and inexpensive tothe valuable and complex. Likewise, the unskilled workers became skilled workers andengineers; their former huge numbers dwindling to a few specialized technicians.

Despite the fact that components have qualitatively and quantitatively changed, theiressential role in production has remained basically unaltered. For example, iron ore, acomponent of both past and present production, was manufactured primitively by ironsmiths into knives, axes, spears, etc. The same iron ore is now manufactured by engineersand technicians by means of smelting furnaces into all kinds of machines, engines andvehicles. The animal - horse, mule, camel, or the like - which was a component ofproduction, has been replaced by factories and huge machines. Production, based uponprimitive tools, is now founded upon sophisticated technical instruments. Despite thesetremendous changes, the components of natural production remain basically the same.This consistency inevitably necessitates returning to sound natural rules to solve theeconomic problems that are the result of all previous historical attempts to formulatesolutions that ignore these rules.

All previous historical theories tackled the economic problem either from the angle ofownership of any of the components of production, or from that of wages for production.They failed to solve the real problem; the problem of production itself. Thus, the mostimportant characteristic of economic order prevailing in the world today is a wage system13

that deprives the workers of any right to the products being produced, be it for the societyor for a private establishment.

An industrial establishment is composed of material for production, machines andworkers. Production is achieved by workers manufacturing materials and using machines.Thus, manufactured goods would not have been ready for use and consumption had theynot gone through a production process requiring raw materials, factories, and workers.Clearly, without basic raw materials, the factory cannot operate and without the factory,raw materials will not be manufactured. Likewise, without producers, the factory comes toa halt. Thus, the three factors are equally essential to the process of production, andwithout them there can be no production. The absence of any one of these componentscannot be replaced by the others. Therefore, the natural rule necessitates each componentreceiving an equal share of the benefits of production. It is not only the factory that isimportant, but those who consume its production as well.

The same is applicable to agricultural production processes resulting from only twocomponents: man and land. The product must be divided equally into two sharescongruent with the number of production components. Furthermore, if any additionalmode, mechanical or otherwise is utilized in the process, production must be equallydivided into three shares: the land, the farmer, and the means of production.Consequently, a socialist system emerges under which all production processes aregoverned by this natural rule.

The producers are the workers; they are called producers because the terms "worker,""labourer," and "toiler" have become invalid. The traditional definition is revised becauseworkers are undergoing qualitative and quantitative changes. The working class isdeclining proportionately to the advancement of science and technology.

Tasks once performed by a number of workers are now being carried out by a singlemachine. Operating a machine requires fewer workers; this has brought about aquantitative change in the labour force, while the replacement of physical force bytechnical skill has resulted in a qualitative change in the labour force.

The labour force has become a component of the production process. As a result oftechnical advancement, multitudes of unskilled toilers have been transformed into limitednumbers of technicians, engineers and scientists. Consequently, trade unions willsubsequently disappear and be replaced by syndicates of engineers and technicians.Scientific advancement is an irreversible gain for humankind. Thanks to this process,illiteracy will be eliminated and unskilled workers will become a temporary phenomenondestined to gradual disappearance. However, even in this new environment, persons willalways remain the basic component in the production process.

NEED

The freedom of a human being is lacking if his or her needs are controlled by others, forneed may lead to the enslavement of one person by another. Furthermore, exploitation iscaused by need. Need is an intrinsic problem and conflict is initiated by the control ofone's needs by another.

HOUSING

Housing is an essential need for both the individual and the family and should not beowned by others. Living in another's house, whether paying rent or not, compromises14

freedom. Attempts made by various countries to solve the housing problem did notprovide a definite solution because such attempts did not target the ultimate solution - thenecessity that people own their dwellings - but rather offered the reduction, increase, orstandardization of rent, whether it went to privately or publicly-owned enterprise. In asocialist society, no one, including society itself, has the right to control people's needs.No one has the right to acquire a house additional to his or her own dwelling and that ofhis or her heirs for the purpose of renting it because this additional house is, in fact, aneed of someone else. Acquiring it for such a purpose is the beginning of controlling theneeds of others, and "in need freedom is latent".

INCOME

Income is an imperative need for man. In a socialist society, it should not be in the form ofwages from any source or charity from any one. In this society, there are no wage-earners,but only partners. One's income is a private matter and should either be managed privatelyto meet one's needs or be a share from a production process of which one is an essentialcomponent. It should not be a wage in return for production.

MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION

Transportation is also a necessity both to the individual and to the family. It should not beowned by others. In a socialist society, no person or authority has the right to own ameans of transportation for the purpose of renting it, for this also means controlling theneeds of others.

LAND

Land is the private property of none. Rather, everyone has the right to beneficially utilize itby working, farming or pasturing as long as he and his heirs live on it - to satisfy theirneeds, but without employing others with or without a wage. If lands were privately owned,only the living would have a share in it.

Land is permanent, while those who benefit from the land undergo, in the course of time,changes in profession, capabilities and existence.

The aspiration of the new socialist society is to create a society which is happy because itis free. This can only be achieved by satisfying, man's material and spiritual needs, andthat, in turn, comes about through the liberation of these needs from the control of others.Satisfaction of these needs must be attained without exploiting or enslaving others;otherwise, the aspirations of the new socialist society are contradicted.

Thus, the citizen in this new society secures his material needs either through self employment,or by being a partner in a collectively-owned establishment, or by renderingpublic service to society which, in return, provides for his material needs.

Economic activity in the new socialist society is a productive one aimed at the satisfactionof material needs. It is not an unproductive activity, nor one which seeks profit for surplussavings beyond the satisfaction of such needs. This, according to the new socialist basis,is unacceptable. The legitimate purpose for private economic activities is only to satisfyone's needs because the wealth of the world, as well as that of each individual society, isfinite at each stage. No one has the right to undertake an economic activity wherebywealth exceeding the satisfaction of one's needs can be amassed. Such accumulationsare, in fact, the deprived right of others. One only has the right to save from his own15

production and not by employing others, or to save at the expense of his or her own needsand not of others. If economic activity is allowed to extend beyond the satisfaction ofneeds, some will acquire more than required for their needs while others will be deprived.The savings which are in excess of one's needs are another person's share of the wealthof society. Allowing private economic activity to amass wealth beyond the satisfaction ofone's needs and employing others to satisfy one's needs or beyond, or to secure savings,is the very essence of exploitation.

Work for wages, in addition to being enslavement as previously mentioned, is void ofincentives because the producer is a wage-earner and not a partner. Self-employedpersons are undoubtedly devoted to their work because from it they satisfy their materialneeds. Likewise, those who work in a collective establishment are also devoted to theirwork because they are partners in it and they satisfy their material needs from theproduction. Whoever works for a wage, on the other hand, has little incentive to work.

Work for wages has failed to solve the problem of motivation for increasing anddeveloping production. Whether it is a service or goods production, work for wages iscontinuously deteriorating because it is performed by unmotivated wage-earners.

EXAMPLES OF WAGE-LABOUR: FOR THE SOCIETY, FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRISE, ANDSELF-EMPLOYMENT:

First example:
(a) A worker produces ten apples for society. The society gives him one apple for hisproduction and it fully satisfies his needs.
(b) A worker produces ten apples for society. The society gives him one apple for hisproduction which does not satisfy his needs.
Second example:
A worker produces ten apples for another person and gets wages less than the price ofone apple.
Third example:
A worker produces ten apples for himself.

The conclusion:In the first example (a), because the worker's wages are limited to one unit which satisfieshis needs, he has no incentive to increase his production. Thus, all the labour force thatworks for society is psychologically apathetic.

(b) The worker has no incentive even to produce because he cannot satisfy his needs fromthe wages. However, he continues working without any incentives because generally, likeall members, he is forced to acquiesce to the working conditions of the society.

In the second example, the worker works basically to get wages and not to produce. Sincehis wages cannot satisfy his needs, the choices are either to look for another master to geta better price for his work, or be forced, as a matter of survival, to remain where he is.16

In the third example, the self-employed alone is the one who produces eagerly andvoluntarily.

In a socialist society, there is no possibility for private production to exceed thesatisfaction of one's needs because satisfaction of needs at the expense or by means ofothers is not permitted. Moreover, socialist establishments operate only for thesatisfaction of the needs of society. Accordingly, the third example demonstrates thesound basis of its economic production.

However, in all instances, even the bad ones production is associated with survival. Theproof thereof is that, even though in capitalist societies production accumulates andexpands in the hands of only a few owners who do not work but exploit the efforts ofothers, the toilers are still forced to produce in order to survive. However, THE GREENBOOK not only solves the problem of material production but also prescribes acomprehensive solution for the problems facing human societies so that individuals maybe totally liberated, materially and spiritually, in order to attain their happiness.

Other examples:

If we assume that the wealth of a society is ten units and its inhabitants are ten persons,then the share of each member is one-tenth of the total one unit per person. If somemembers of this society get more than one unit each, then a certain number from thesociety get nothing. Their share of the wealth of their society has been acquired by others.Hence, the presence of rich and poor in an exploitative society. Let us also suppose thatfive members of that particular society each own two units. In such a case, half of thesociety is deprived of their rights to the wealth of their society, for what should be theirshas been acquired by others.

If an individual of that society needs only one of the units of the wealth of the society tosatisfy his needs, then those who possess more than one unit are, in fact, seizing therights of other members of the society. Because the one unit is all that is required tosatisfy the needs of an individual, the additional units are acquired for the purpose ofsavings. This can only be achieved at the expense of the needs of others; the acquisitionof others' share in this wealth. This is the reason behind the existence of those who hoardand do not spend; those who save beyond the satisfaction of their needs; and theexistence of those who beg and are deprived of their right to the wealth of the society anddo not find enough to consume. Such is an act of plunder and theft, yet according to theunjust and exploitative rules governing such a society, it is legitimate and overt.

Any surplus beyond the satisfaction of needs should ultimately belong to all members ofsociety. Individuals, however, have a right to effect savings from the share allocated totheir own needs since it is the amassing of wealth beyond the satisfaction of one's needsthat is an encroachment upon public wealth.

The industrious and skilful in a society have no right, as a result of this advantage, to takefrom the shares of others. They can use their talents to satisfy their own needs and savefrom those needs. Like any other member of the society, the aged and the mentally andphysically disabled should have their fair share of the wealth of the society.

The wealth of a society may be likened to a supply establishment or a store providing acertain number of people with daily rations satisfying their needs. Each person has a rightto save from such provisions what he wants, i.e., to consume or save whatever portions ofhis share he decides, utilizing his talents and skill for such purposes. However, those whouse their talents to acquire excessively from the "supply establishment" are undoubtedly17

thieves. Therefore, those using their skill to acquire wealth exceeding the satisfaction oftheir needs are, in fact, infringing upon the public right, namely, the wealth of societywhich is like the store in the said example.

Disparity in the wealth of individuals in the new socialist society is not tolerated, save forthose rendering certain services to the society for which they are accorded an amountcongruent with their services. Individual shares only differ relative to the amount ofproduction or public service rendered in excess.

Hence, human experiences through history have produced a new experiment in a uniqueattempt to culminate the struggle of persons to complete their freedom, to achievehappiness through satisfying their needs, to ward off exploitation by others, to put an endto tyranny, and to find a method to distribute the wealth of the society equitably, withoutexploiting others or compromising their needs. It is the theory of the fulfilment of needsfor the emancipation of humanity.

The new socialist society is but a dialectical outcome of the unjust relationships prevailingin the world today. The new socialist society will introduce the natural solution - privately ownedproperty to satisfy one's needs without exploitation, and collective property inwhich the producers are partners replacing private enterprise, which is based on theproduction of others without recognizing their right to a just share of the product.

Whoever possesses the house in which you dwell, the vehicle in which you ride or theincome on which you live, possesses your freedom, or part of it. Freedom is indivisible.For people to be happy, they must be free, and to be free, they must possess thepossibility of satisfying their own needs. Whoever possesses the means of fulfilling yourneeds controls or exploits you, and may enslave you despite any legislation to thecontrary.

The material needs of people that are basic and personal start with food, housing, clothingand transport and must be regarded as private and sacred and their satisfaction shouldnot depend on hire.

To satisfy these material needs through rent, gives the original owner the right to interferein your personal life and to control your imperative needs, even if the original owner be thesociety in general. The original owner can usurp your freedom and take away yourhappiness. The interference of the original owner may include repossessing your clothes,even leaving you naked on the street. Likewise, the owner of your means of transportationmay leave you stranded on the sidewalk, and the owner of your house may make youhomeless.

People's imperative needs cannot be regulated by legal or administrative procedures.They must be fundamentally implanted into the society in accordance with natural rules.

The aim of the socialist society is the happiness of the human being, which cannot beattained except by the establishment of one's material, and spiritual freedom. Theachievement of freedom depends on the private and sacred attainment of man's needs.One's needs should not be under the domination of others and should not be subject toplunder by any source in society, otherwise one will live in insecurity. Deprivation of themeans of fulfilment compromises freedom because, in attempting to satisfy basic needs,one would be subject to the interference of outside forces in one's basic interests.

The transformation of existing societies of wage-earners into those of partners isinevitable as a dialectical outcome of the contradictory economic theories prevailing in the18

world today. It is also a dialectical outcome of the unjust relationship based on the wagesystem. None of these issues have been resolved to date.

The antagonistic force of the trade unions in the capitalist world is capable of replacingcapitalistic wage societies by a society of partnerships. The possibility of a socialistrevolution starts by producers taking over their share of the production. Consequently, theaims of the producers' strikes will change from demanding increases in wages tocontrolling their share in production. Guided by THE GREEN BOOK, this will sooner orlater take place. The final step is for the new socialist society to reach a stage in whichprofit and money disappear. Society will become fully productive; the material needs ofsociety will be met. In this final stage, profit will disappear, as will the need for money.

The recognition of profit is an acknowledgment of exploitation, for profit has no limit.Attempts so far to limit profit by various means have been reformative, not radical,intending to prohibit exploitation of man by man. The final solution lies in eradicatingprofit, but because profit is the dynamic force behind the economic process, eliminatingprofit is not a matter of decree but, rather, an outcome of the evolving socialist process.This solution can be attained when the material satisfaction of the needs of society and itsmembers is achieved.Work to increase profit will itself lead to its final eradication.

DOMESTIC SERVANTS

Domestic servants, paid or unpaid, are a type of slave. Indeed, they are the slaves of themodern age.

Since the new socialist society is based on partnership and not on a wage system, naturalsocialist rules do not apply to domestic servants because they render services rather thanproduction. Services have no tangible material product and cannot be divided into sharesaccording to the natural socialist rule.

Domestic servants have no alternative but to work for wages, or even be unpaid in theworst of situations. As wage-earners are a type of slave and their slavery exists as long asthey work for wages, domestic servants, whose position is lower than that of wage earnersin economic establishments and corporations, have an even greater need to beemancipated from the society of wage-labour and the society of slaves.

Domestic servants is a phenomenon that comes next to slavery.

The Third Universal Theory heralds emancipation from the fetters of injustice, despotism,exploitation, and economic and political hegemony, for the purpose of establishing asociety of all the people where all are free and share equally in authority, wealth and arms.Freedom will then triumph definitively and universally.

THE GREEN BOOK thus defines the path of liberation to masses of wage-earners anddomestic servants in order that human beings may achieve freedom. The struggle toliberate domestic servants from their status of slavery and to transform them intopartners, where their material production can be divided into its necessary basiccomponents, is an inevitable process. Households should be serviced by their habitants.Essential household services should not be performed by domestic servants, paid orunpaid, but by employees who can be promoted in rendering their services and can enjoysocial and material benefits as any other public employee would.19
PART THREE - THE SOCIAL BASIS OF THE THIRD UNIVERSAL THEORY

The social factor, the national factor, is the dynamic force of human history. The socialbond, which binds together human communities from the family through the tribe to thenation, is the basis for the movement of history.

Heroes in history are, by definition, those who have sacrificed for causes. But whatcauses? They sacrificed for the sake of others, but which others? They are those withwhom they maintain a relationship. Therefore, the relationship between an individual and agroup is a social one that governs the people's dealings amongst themselves.Nationalism, then, is the base upon which one nation emerges. Social causes are thereforenational, and the national relationship is a social one. The social relationship is derivedfrom society, i.e., the relationship among members of one nation. The social relationshipis, therefore, a national relationship and the national is a social relationship. Even if smallin number, communities or groups form one nation regardless of the individualrelationship amongst its members. What is meant here by a community is that which ispermanent because of the common national ties that govern it.

Historic movements are mass movements, i.e., the movement of one group in its owninterests differentiated from the interests of other communities. These differentiationsindicate the social characteristics that bind a community together. Mass movements areindependent movements to assert the identity of a group conquered or oppressed byanother group.

The struggle for authority happens within the group itself down to the level of the family,as was explained in Part 1 of THE GREEN BOOK: The Political Axis of the Third UniversalTheory. A group movement is a nation's movement for its own interests. By virtue of itsnational structure, each group has common social needs which must be collectivelysatisfied. These needs are in no way individualistic; they are collective needs, rights,demands, or objectives of a nation which are linked by a single ethos. That is why thesemovements are called national movements. Contemporary national liberation movementsare themselves social movements; they will not come to an end before every group isliberated from the domination of another group. The world is now passing through one ofthe regular cycles of the movement of history, namely, the social struggle in support ofnationalism.

In the world of man, this is as much a historical reality as it is a social reality. That meansthat the national struggle - the social struggle - is the basis of the movement of history. Itis stronger than all other factors since it is in the nature of the human group; it is in thenature of the nation; it is the nature of life itself. Other animals, apart from man, live ingroups. Indeed, just as the community is the basis for the survival of all groups within theanimal kingdom, so nationalism is the basis for the survival of nations.

Nations whose nationalism is destroyed are subject to ruin. Minorities, which are one ofthe main political problems in the world, are the outcome. They are nations whosenationalism has been destroyed and which are thus torn apart. The social factor is,therefore, a factor of life - a factor of survival. It is the nation's innate momentum forsurvival.

Nationalism in the human world and group instinct in the animal kingdom are like gravityin the domain of material and celestial bodies. If the sun lost its gravity, its gasses wouldexplode and its unity would no longer exist. Accordingly, unity is the basis for survival.The factor of unity in any group is a social factor; in man's case, nationalism. For this20

reason, human communities struggle for their own national unity, the basis for theirsurvival.

The national factor, the social bond, works automatically to impel a nation towardssurvival, in the same way that the gravity of an object works to keep it as one masssurrounding its centre. The dissolution and dispersion of atoms in an atomic bomb are theresult of the explosion of the nucleus, which is the focus of gravitation for the particlesaround it. When the factor of unity in those component systems is destroyed and gravityis lost, every atom is separately dispersed. This is the nature of matter. It is an establishednatural law. To disregard it or to go against it is damaging to life. Similarly, man's life isdamaged when he begins to disregard nationalism - the social factor - for it is the gravityof the group, the secret of its survival. Only the religious factor is a rival to the socialfactor in influencing the unity of a group. The religious factor may divide the nationalgroup or unite groups with different nationalisms; however, the social factor willeventually triumph. This has been the case throughout the ages. Historically, each nationhad a religion. This was harmonious. Eventually, however, differences arose whichbecame a genuine cause of conflict and instability in the lives of people throughout theages.

A sound rule is that each nation should have a religion. For it to be otherwise is abnormal.Such an abnormality creates an unsound situation which becomes a real cause fordisputes within one national group. There is no other solution but to be harmonious withthe natural rule, i.e., each nation has a single religion. When the social factor is compatiblewith the religious factor, harmony prevails and the life of communities becomes stable,strong, and develops soundly.

Marriage is a process that can positively or negatively influence the social factor. Though,on a natural basis of freedom, both man and woman are free to accept whom they wantand reject whom they do not want, marriage within a group, by its very nature, strengthensits unity and brings about collective growth in conformity with the social factor.

THE FAMILY

To the individual, the family is more important than the state. Mankind acknowledges theindividual as a human being, and the individual acknowledges the family, which is hiscradle, his origin, and his social umbrella. According to the law of nature, the human raceis the individual and the family, but not the state. The human race has neither relations noranything else to do with the state, which is an artificial political, economic, and sometimesmilitary, system. The family is like a plant, with branches, stems, leaves and blossoms.Cultivating nature into farms and gardens is an artificial process that has no relevance tothe plant itself. The fact that certain political, economic or military factors tie a number offamilies into one state does not necessarily link this system or its organization withhumanity. Similarly, any situation, position or proceeding that results in the dispersion,decline or loss of the family is inhuman, unnatural and oppressive, analogous to anyprocedure, measure or action that destroys a plant and its branches and withers its leavesand blossoms.

Societies in which the existence and unity of the family become threatened due to anycircumstance, are similar to fields whose plants experience uprooting, drought, fire,weathering or death. The blossoming garden or field is one whose plants grow, blossomand pollinate naturally. The same holds true of human societies. The flourishing society isthat in which the individual grows naturally within the family and the family within society.The individual is linked to the larger family of humankind like a leaf is to a branch or abranch to a tree. They have no value or life if they are separated. The same holds true for21

individuals if they are separated from their families - the individual without a family has novalue or social life. If human society reaches the stage where the individual lives without afamily, it would then become a society of tramps, without roots, like artificial plants.

THE TRIBE

A tribe is a family which has grown as a result of procreation. It follows that a tribe is anenlarged family. Similarly, a nation is a tribe which has grown through procreation. Thenation, then, is an enlarged tribe. The world is a nation which has been diversified intovarious nations. The world, then, is an enlarged nation. The relationship which binds thefamily also binds the tribe, the nation, and the world. However, it weakens with theincrease in number. The essence of humanity is that of nation, the essence of nation isthat of the tribe, and the essence of the tribe is that of family. The degree of warmthinvolved in the relationship decreases proportionately with the increase in size of thesocial unit. This is an indisputable social fact denied only by those who are ignorant of it.

The social bond, cohesiveness, unity, intimacy and love are stronger at the family levelthan at the tribal level, stronger at the tribal level than that of the nation, and stronger atthe level of the nation than that of the world.

Advantages, privileges, values and ideals based on social bonds exist where those bondsare natural and undoubtedly strong. They are stronger at the family level than at the levelof the tribe, stronger at the tribal level than that of the nation, and stronger at the nation'slevel than that of the world. Thus, these social bonds, benefits, advantages and idealsassociated with them are lost wherever the family, the tribe, the nation or humankindvanish or are lost. It is, therefore, of great importance for human society to maintain thecohesiveness of the family, the tribe, the nation and the world in order to benefit from theadvantages, privileges, values and ideals yielded by the solidarity, cohesiveness, unity,intimacy and love of family, tribe, nation and humanity.

In the social sense, the familial society is better than that of the tribe, the tribal society isbetter than that of the nation, and the society of the nation is better than world society withrespect to fellowship, affection, solidarity and benefits.

THE MERITS OF THE TRIBE

Since the tribe is a large family, it provides its members with much the same materialbenefits and social advantages that the family provides for its members, for the tribe is asecondary family. What must be emphasized is that, in the context of the tribe, anindividual might indulge himself in an uncouth manner, something which he would not dowithin the family. However, because of the smallness in size of the family, immediatesupervision is not exercised, unlike the tribe whose members continually feel that they areunder its supervision. In view of these considerations, the tribe forms a behaviour patternfor its members, developing into a social education which is better and more noble thanany school education. The tribe is a social school where its members are raised to absorbthe high ideals which develop into a behaviour pattern for life. These becomeautomatically rooted as the human being grows, unlike classroom education with itscurricula - formally dictated and gradually lost with the growth of the individual. This is sobecause it is formal and compulsory and because the individual is aware of the fact that itis dictated to him.

The tribe is a natural social "umbrella" for social security. By virtue of social tribaltraditions, the tribe provides for its members collective protection in the form of fines,revenge and defence; namely, social protection. Blood is the prime factor in the formation22

of the tribe, but it is not the only one because affiliation is also a factor in the formation ofthe tribe. With the passage of time, the differences between the factors of blood andaffiliation disappear, leaving the tribe as one social and physical unit, though it remainsfundamentally a unit of blood in origin.

THE NATION

The nation is the individual's national political "umbrella"; it is wider than the social"umbrella" provided by the tribe to its members. Tribalism damages nationalism becausetribal allegiance weakens national loyalty and flourishes at its expense. In the same way,loyalty to the family flourishes at the expense of tribal loyalty and weakens it. Nationalloyalty is essential to the nation but, at the same time, it is a threat to humanity.

The nation in the world community is similar, to the family in the tribe. The more thefamilies of a tribe feud and become fanatical, the more the tribe is threatened. The family isthreatened when its individual members feud and pursue only their personal interests.Similarly, if the tribes of a nation quarrel and pursue only their own interests, then thenation is undermined. National fanaticism expressed in the use of force against weaknations, or national progress which is at the expense of other nations, is evil and harmfulto humanity. However, strong individuals who have self-respect and are aware of their ownindividual responsibilities are important and useful to the family, just as a strong andrespectable family, which is aware of its importance, is socially and materially beneficial tothe tribe. Equally useful to the whole world is a progressive, productive and civilizednation. The national political structure is damaged when it descends to a lower sociallevel, namely, the family and tribe, and attempts to act in their manner and to adopt theirviews.

The nation is an enlarged family which has passed through the period of the tribe andthrough the diversification of tribes that have branched out from one common source. Italso includes those members who affiliated themselves with its destiny. The family,likewise, grows into a nation only after passing through the period of the tribe and itsdiversification, as well as through the process of affiliation which comes about as a resultof interaction between various communities in a society. Inevitably, this is achieved over along period of time. Although the passage of time creates new nations, it also helps tofragment old ones. Common origin and common destiny, through affiliation, are the twohistoric bases for any nation, though origin ranks first and affiliation second. A nation isnot defined only by origin, even though origin is its basis and beginning. In addition to itsorigin, a nation is formed by human affiliations through the course of history which inducea group of people to live in one area of land, develop a common history, form one heritage,and face the same destiny. A nation, irrespective of blood bond, is formed through a senseof belonging and a shared destiny.

But why has the map of the earth witnessed great nations that have disappeared to giveway to the rise of other nations? Is the reason only political, without any relationship tothe social aspect of The Third Universal Theory? Or, is it social and so properly theconcern of this part of THE GREEN BOOK?

Let us see. The family is indisputably a social structure rather than a political one. Thesame applies to the tribe because it is a family which has reproduced and enlarged itselfto become many families. Equally true, the nation is a tribe after it has grown and itsbranches have multiplied and become tribes.

The nation is also a social structure whose bond is nationalism; the tribe is a socialstructure whose bond is tribalism; the family is a social structure whose bond is family
23

ties; and global society is a social structure whose bond is humanity. These facts are selfevident.There is then the political structure of states which form the political map of theworld. But why does the map of the world keep changing from one age to the next? Thereason is that political structures may, or may not, be consistent with social structures.When political structure and social reality are congruent, as in the case of the nation-state,it lasts and does not change. If a change is forced by external colonialism or internalcollapse, it reappears under the banner of national struggle, national revival or nationalunity. When a political structure embraces more than one nation, its map will be torn up byeach nation, gaining independence under the banner of its respective nationhood. Thus,the maps of the empires which the world has witnessed have been torn up because theywere composed of a number of nations. When every nation clings strongly to its nationalidentity and seeks independence, political empires are torn up and their componentsrevert to their social origins. This is evidently clear through the history of the world whenreviewed through the ages.

But why were those empires made up of different nations? The answer is that the state isnot a social structure like the family, the tribe and the nation, but, rather, a political entitycreated by several factors, the simplest and foremost of which is nationalism. The nationalstate is the only political form which is consistent with the natural social structure. Itsexistence lasts, unless it becomes subject to the tyranny of another stronger nationalismor unless its political structure, as a state, is affected by its social structure in the form oftribes, clans and families. A political structure is corrupted if it becomes subservient to thesectarian social structure of the family, tribe, or sect and adopts its characteristics.

Religious, economic and military factors also contribute to form a state which differs fromthe basic, national state.

A common religion, as well as the requirements of economics or military conquests, maycreate a state which embraces several nations. Thus, in one age, the world witnesses astate or an empire which will disintegrate in another age. When the spirit of nationalismemerges stronger than religious loyalties, or conflict flares up between differentnationalisms which were brought together, for example, by one religion, each nationbecomes independent and recovers its social structure. That empire, then, disappears.The role of religion resurfaces when the religious spirit emerges stronger than the spirit ofnationalism. Consequently, the various nationalisms are unified under the banner ofreligion until the national role appears once again, and so on.

All states which are composed of several nationalities for whatever reason - religion,economics, military power or man-made ideology will be destroyed by national conflictuntil each nation obtains its independence, because the social factor will inevitablytriumph over the political factor.

Despite political circumstances which necessitate the establishment of a state, the basisfor the life of individuals is the family, and extends to the tribe, the nation, and eventuallyto all humanity. The essential factor is the social factor. Nationalism is a permanent factor.Stress should be laid on social reality and family care in order to bring up an integratedwell-educated human. Care should then be given to the tribe as a social "umbrella" and anatural social school which develops its members at the post-family stage. The nationthen follows. The individual learns social values mainly from the family and the tribe whichform a natural social structure created by no particular individual. Taking care of thefamily is in the interest of the individual just as the care of the tribe is in the interest of thefamily, the individual and the nation; it is part of the national identity. The social factor, thenational factor, is the real constant dynamic force behind history.24

To disregard the national bond of human communities and to establish a political systemin contradiction to social reality establishes only a temporary structure which will bedestroyed by the movement of the social factor of those groups, i.e., the national integrityand dynamism of each community.

These facts are innate in the life of humankind and are not intellectual conjectures. Everyindividual in the world should be aware of these realities and work accordingly so that hisactions may be worthwhile. To avoid deviation, disorder and damage in the life of humangroups which are the result of a lack of understanding and respect for these principles ofhuman life, it is necessary to know these proven realities.

WOMAN

It is an undisputed fact that both man and woman are human beings. It follows, as a self evidentfact, that woman and man are equal as human beings. Discrimination againstwoman by man is a flagrant act of oppression without justification for woman eats anddrinks as man eats and drinks; woman loves and hates as man loves and hates; womanthinks, learns and comprehends as man thinks, learns and comprehends. Woman, likeman, needs shelter, clothing, and transportation; woman feels hunger and thirst as manfeels hunger and thirst; woman lives and dies as man lives and dies.

But why are there men and women? Human society is composed neither of men alone norof women alone. It is made up naturally of men and women. Why were not only mencreated? Why were not only women created? After all, what is the difference between menand women or man and woman? Why was it necessary to create men and women? Theremust be a natural necessity for the existence of man and woman, rather than man only orwoman only. It follows that neither of them is exactly like the other, and the fact that anatural difference exists between men and women is proved by the created existence ofmen and women. This necessarily means that there is a role for each one of themcorresponding to the difference between them. Accordingly, there must be differentprevailing conditions for each one in order that they perform their naturally different roles.To comprehend these roles, we must understand the difference in the created nature ofman and woman, that is, the natural difference between the two.

Women are females and men are males. According to gynaecologists, women menstruateevery month or so, while men, being male, do not menstruate or suffer during the monthlyperiod. A woman, being a female, is naturally subject to monthly bleeding. When a womandoes not menstruate, she is pregnant. If she is pregnant, she becomes, due to pregnancy,less active for about a year, which means that all her natural activities are seriouslyreduced until she delivers her baby. When she delivers her baby or has a miscarriage, shesuffers puerperium, a condition attendant on delivery or miscarriage. As man does not getpregnant, he is not liable to the conditions which women, being female, suffer. Afterwardsa woman may breast-feed the baby she bore. Breast-feeding continues for about twoyears. Breastfeeding means that a woman is so inseparable from her baby that her activityis seriously reduced. She becomes directly responsible for another person whom sheassists in his or her biological functions; without this assistance that person would die.The man, on the other hand, neither conceives nor breast-feeds. End of gynaecologicalstatement!

All these innate characteristics form differences because of which men and women are notthe same. These characteristics in themselves are the realities that define male andfemale, men and women; they assign to each of them a different role or function in life.This means that men cannot replace women in carrying out these functions. It is worthy ofconsideration that these biological functions are a heavy burden, causing women great25

effort and suffering. However, without these functions which women perform, human lifewould come to an end. It follows that it is a natural function which is neither voluntary norcompulsory. It is an essential function, without which human life would come to acomplete halt.

Deliberate interventions against conception form an alternative to human life. In additionto that, there exists partial deliberate intervention against conception, as well as againstbreast-feeding. All these are links in a chain of actions in contradiction to natural life,which is tantamount to murder. For a woman to kill herself in order not to conceive, deliverand breast-feed is within the realm of deliberate, artificial interventions, in contradictionwith the nature of life epitomized by marriage, conception, breast-feeding, and maternity.They differ only in degree.

To dispense with the natural role of woman in maternity - nurseries replacing mothers - isa start in dispensing with the human society and transforming it into a merely biologicalsociety with an artificial way of life. To separate children from their mothers and to cramthem into nurseries is a process by which they are transformed into something very closeto chicks, for nurseries are similar to poultry farms into which chicks are crammed afterthey are hatched. Nothing else would be as appropriate and suitable to the human beingand his dignity as natural motherhood. Children should be raised by their mothers in afamily where the true principles of motherhood, fatherhood and comradeship of brothersand sisters prevail, and not in an institution resembling a poultry farm. Even poultry, likethe rest of the members of the animal kingdom, need motherhood as a natural phase.Therefore, breeding them on farms similar to nurseries is against their natural growth.Even their meat is artificial rather than natural. Meat from mechanized poultry farms is nottasty and may not be nourishing because the chicks are not naturally bred and are notraised in the protective shade of natural motherhood. The meat of wild birds is more tastyand nourishing because they are naturally fed. As for children who have neither family norshelter, society is their guardian, and only for them, should society establish nurseriesand related institutions. It is better for them to be taken care of by society rather than byindividuals who are not their parents.

If a test were carried out to discover whether the natural propensity of the child is towardsits mother or the nursery. the child would opt for the mother and not the nursery. Since thenatural tendency of a child is towards its mother, she is the natural and proper person togive the child the protection of nursing. Sending a child to a nursery in place of its motheris coercive and oppressive and against its free and natural tendencies.

Natural growth for all living things is free and healthy growth. To substitute a nursery for amother is coercive action against free and sound growth. Children who are shipped off toa nursery are consigned compulsorily or by exploitation and simple-mindedness. They aredriven to nurseries purely by materialistic, and not by social, considerations. If coercionand childish simple-mindedness were removed, they would certainly reject the nurseryand cling to their mothers. The only justification for such an unnatural and inhumanprocess is the fact that the woman is in a position unsuitable to her nature, i.e., she iscompelled to perform duties which are unsocial and anti-motherhood.

A woman, whose created nature has assigned to her a natural role different from that ofman, must be in an appropriate position to perform her natural role.

Motherhood is the female's function, not the male's. Consequently, it is unnatural toseparate children from their mothers. Any attempt to take children away from theirmothers is coercion, oppression and dictatorship. The mother who abandons hermaternity contradicts her natural role in life. She must be provided with her rights, andwith conditions which are non-coercive, unoppressive and appropriate to her natural role.26

She can then fulfill her natural role under natural conditions. If the woman is forced toabandon her natural role regarding conception and maternity, she falls victim to coercionand tyranny. A woman who needs work that renders her unable to perform her naturalfunction is not free and is compelled to work by need, and "in need, freedom is latent".

Among suitable and even essential conditions which enable women to perform theirnatural role, which differs from that of men, are those very conditions which are proper fora human being who is incapacitated and burdened with pregnancy. Bearing anotherhuman being in her womb lessens her physical ability. It is unjust to place such a woman,in this stage of maternity, into circumstances of physical work incompatible with hercondition. For pregnant women to perform such physical work is tantamount topunishment for their betrayal of their maternal role; it is the tax they pay for entering therealm of men, which is naturally alien to their own.

The belief, even if it is held by a woman, that she carries out physical labour of her ownaccord, is not, in fact, true. She performs the physical work only because a harshmaterialistic society has placed her (without her being directly aware of it) into coercivecircumstances. She has no alternative but to submit to the conditions of that society, eventhough she may think that she works of her own accord. In fact, the alleged basis that"there is no difference in any way between men and women", deprives woman of herfreedom.

The phrase "in any way" is a monstrous deception. This idea will destroy the appropriateand necessary conditions which constitute the privilege which women ought to enjoyapart from men in accordance with their distinctive nature, and upon which their naturalrole in life is based.

To demand equality between man and woman in carrying heavy weights while the womanis pregnant is unjust and cruel. To demand equality between them in fasting and hardshipwhile she is breast-feeding is unjust and cruel. To demand equality between them in anydirty work which stains her beauty and detracts from her femininity is unjust and cruel.Education that leads to work unsuitable for her nature is unjust and cruel as well.

There is no difference between men and women in all that concerns humanity. None ofthem should marry the other against his or her will, or divorce without a just trial or mutualagreement. Neither should a woman remarry without such agreement or divorce; nor aman without divorce or consent. The woman is the owner of the house because it is one ofthe suitable and necessary conditions for a woman who menstruates, conceives, andcares for her children. The female is the owner of the maternity shelter, which is thehouse. Even in the animal world, which differs in many ways from that of the humans, andwhere maternity is also a duty according to nature, it is coercive to deprive the female ofher shelter and the offspring of their mother.

Woman is female. Being female means she has a biological nature that is different fromthat of the male. The female's biological nature, differing as it does from that of the males,has imparted to women characteristics different from those of men in form and in essence.A woman's anatomy is different from that of a man's just as the female differs in plantsand animals. This is a natural and incontrovertible fact. In the animal and plant kingdoms,the male is naturally created strong and aggressive, while the female is created beautifuland gentle. These are natural and eternal characteristics innate to living creatures,whether they are called human beings, animals or plants.

In view of his different nature and in line with the laws of nature, the male has played therole of the strong and striving not by design, but simply because he is created that way.27

The female has played the role of the beautiful and the gentle involuntarily because shewas created so. This natural rule is just, partly because it is natural, and partly because itis the basic rule for freedom. All living creatures are created free and any interference withthat freedom is coercion. Not to adhere to these natural roles and to lack concern for theirlimits amounts to a wanton act of corruption against the values of life itself. Nature hasbeen designed to be in harmony with the inevitability of life, from what is being to what willbecome. The living creature is a being who inevitably lives until it is dead. Existencebetween the beginning and the end of life is based on a natural law, without choice orcompulsion. It is natural. It is natural freedom.

In the animal, plant and human realms, there must be a male and a female for life to occurfrom its beginning to its end. Not only do they exist but they have to exercise, withabsolute efficiency, the natural role for which they have been created. If their role is notbeing efficiently performed, there must be some defect in the organization of life causedby historical circumstances. This is the case of societies almost everywhere in the worldtoday as they confuse the roles of men and women and endeavour to transform womeninto men. In harmony with nature and its subsequent purpose, men and women must becreative within their respective roles. To resist is retrogressive; it is directed againstnature and destroys the basis of freedom, for it is hostile to both life and survival. Men andwomen must perform, not abandon, the roles for which they are created.

Abandoning their role, or even a part of it, only occurs as a result of coercive conditionsand under abnormal circumstances. The woman who rejects pregnancy, marriage,beautification and femininity for reasons of health abandons her natural role in life underthese coercive conditions of ill health. The woman who rejects marriage, pregnancy ormotherhood because of work abandons her natural role under similar coercive conditions.The woman who rejects marriage, pregnancy or maternity without any concrete causeabandons her natural role as a result of a coercive and morally deviant circumstances.Thus, abandoning the natural roles of female and male in life can only occur underunnatural conditions which are contrary to freedom and are a threat to survival.Consequently, there must be a world revolution which puts an end to all materialisticconditions hindering women from performing their natural role in life, and so drives themto carry out men's duties in order to attain equal rights. Such revolution will inevitably takeplace, particularly in industrial societies, as a response to the instinct of survival, evenwithout any instigator of revolution such as THE GREEN BOOK.

All societies today look upon women as little more than commodities. The East regardsher as a commodity to be bought and sold, while the West does not recognize herfemininity.
Driving woman to do man's work is a flagrant aggression against the femininity with whichshe is naturally provided and which defines a natural purpose essential to life. Man's workobscures woman's beautiful features which are created for female roles. They are likeblossoms which are created to attract pollen and to produce seeds. If we did away with theblossoms, the role of plants in life would come to an end. The natural embellishment inbutterflies and birds and animal females exists to that natural vital purpose. If a womancarries out men's work, she risks being transformed into a man, abandoning her role andher beauty. A woman has full right to live without being forced to change into a man and togive up her femininity.

Physical structure, which is naturally different in men and women, leads to differences inthe functions of the organs, which in turn leads to differences in the psyche, mood,emotions, as well as in physical appearance. A woman is tender; a woman is pretty; awoman weeps easily and is easily frightened. In general, women are gentle and men areaggressive by virtue of their inbred nature.28

To ignore natural differences between men and women and to mix their roles is anabsolutely uncivilized attitude, hostile to the laws of nature, destructive to human life, anda genuine cause for the wretchedness of human social life.

Modern industrial societies, which have made women adapt to the same physical work asmen at the expense of their femininity and their natural role in terms of beauty, maternityand serenity, are materialistic and uncivilized. To imitate them is as stupid as it isdangerous to civilization and humanity.

The question, then, is not whether women should or should not work, for this is aridiculous materialistic presentation of the case. Work should be provided by the societyto all able members who need work - men and women on the condition that individualswork in their own fields and not be coerced into carrying out unsuitable work.

For children to find themselves under adult working conditions is unjust and dictatorial. Itis equally unjust and dictatorial for women to find themselves under the workingconditions of men.

Freedom means that every human being gets proper education which qualifies him or herfor the work which suits him or her. Dictatorship means that human beings are taught thatwhich is not suitable for them, and are forced to do unsuitable work. Work which isappropriate to men is not necessarily appropriate to women, and knowledge that is properfor children does not necessarily suit adults.

There is no difference in human rights between man and woman, the child and the adult,but there is no absolute identity between them as regards their duties.

MINORITIES

What is a minority? What are its rights and responsibilities? How can the problem ofminorities be solved according to the solution to various human problems presented byThe Third Universal Theory?

There are only two types of minorities. One of them belongs to a nation which provides itwith a social framework, while the other has no nation and forms its own socialframework. The latter is the one that forms one of the historic groups which eventuallyconstitute a nation by virtue of a sense of belonging and a common destiny.

It is now clear that such a minority has its own social rights. Any encroachment on theserights by any majority is an act of injustice. Social characteristics are inherent and cannotbe given or taken away. The political and economic problems of minorities can only besolved within a society controlled by the masses in whose hands power, wealth and armsshould be placed. To view the minority as a political and economic substrata is dictatorialand unjust.

BLACK PEOPLE WILL PREVAIL IN THE WORLD
The latest age of slavery has been the enslavement of Blacks by White people. Thememory of this age will persist in the thinking of Black people until they have vindicatedthemselves.

This tragic and historic event, the resulting bitter feeling, and the yearning or thevindication of a whole race, constitute a psychological motivation of Black people to29

vengeance and triumph that cannot be disregarded. In addition, the inevitable cycle ofsocial history, which includes the Yellow people's domination of the world when itmarched from Asia, and the White people's carrying out a wide-ranging colonialistmovement covering all the continents of the world, is now giving way to the re-emergenceof Black people.

Black people are now in a very backward social situation, but such backwardness worksto bring about their numerical superiority because their low standard of living hasshielded them from methods of birth control and family planning. Also, their old socialtraditions place no limit on marriages, leading to their accelerated growth. The populationof other races has decreased because of birth control, restrictions on marriage, andconstant occupation in work, unlike the Blacks, who tend to be less obsessive about workin a climate which is continuously hot.

EDUCATION

Education, or learning, is not necessarily that routinized curriculum and those classifiedsubjects in textbooks which youths are forced to learn during specified hours while sittingin rows of desks. This type of education now prevailing all over the world is directedagainst human freedom.

State-controlled education, which governments boast ofwhenever they are able to force it on their youths, is a method of suppressing freedom. Itis a compulsory obliteration of a human being's talent, as well as a coercive directing of ahuman being's choices. It is an act of dictatorship destructive of freedom because itdeprives people of their free choice, creativity and brilliance. To force a human being tolearn according to a set curriculum is a dictatorial act. To impose certain subjects uponpeople is also a dictatorial act.State-controlled and standardized education is, in fact, a forced stultification of themasses. All governments which set courses of education in terms of formal curricula andforce people to learn those courses coerce their citizens. All methods of educationprevailing in the world should be destroyed through a universal cultural revolution thatfrees the human mind from curricula of fanaticism which dictate a process of deliberatedistortion of man's tastes, conceptual ability and mentality.

This does not mean that schools are to be closed and that people should turn their backson education, as it may seem to superficial readers. On the contrary, it means. that societyshould provide all types of education, giving people the chance to choose freely anysubjects they wish to learn. This requires a sufficient number of schools for all types ofeducation. Insufficient numbers of schools restrict human freedom of choice, forcing themto learn only the subjects available, while depriving them of the natural right to choosebecause of the unavailability of other subjects. Societies which ban or monopolizeknowledge are reactionary societies which are biased towards ignorance and are hostileto freedom. Societies which prohibit the teaching of religion are reactionary societies,biased towards ignorance and hostile to freedom. Societies which monopolize religiouseducation are reactionary societies, biased towards ignorance and hostile to freedom.Equally so are the societies which distort the religions, civilizations and behaviour ofothers in the process of teaching those subjects. Societies which consider materialisticknowledge taboo are likewise reactionary societies, biased towards ignorance and hostileto freedom. Knowledge is a natural right of every human being of which no one has theright to deprive him or her under any pretext, except in a case where a person doessomething which deprives him or her of that right.30

Ignorance will come to an end when everything is presented as it actually is and when knowledge about everything is available to each person in the manner that suits him orher.

MUSIC AND ART

Humans, being backward, are still unable to speak one common language. Until this human aspiration is attained, which seems impossible, the expression of joy and sorrow, of what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly, comfortable and miserable, mortal and eternal, love and hatred, the description of colours, sentiments, tastes and moods - all will be expressed according to the language each person speaks spontaneously. Behaviour itself will result from the reaction produced by the feeling that the language creates in the speaker's mind.

Learning a single language, whatever it may be, is not the solution for the time being. It is a problem that will inevitably remain without solution until the process of the unification of languages has passed through time, provided that the hereditary factor loses its effect on subsequent generations through the passage of sufficient time. The sentiment, taste and mood of ancestors form those of their descendants. If those ancestors spoke different languages and their children, on the contrary, speak a single language, the off-spring would not necessarily share common tastes in virtue of speaking a common language. Such common tastes can be achieved only when the new language imparts the taste and the sense transmitted by inheritance from one generation to another.

If one group of people wears white clothes in mourning and another group puts on black, the sentiment of each group will be adjusted according to these two colours, i.e., one group rejects the black colour on such an occasion while the other one prefers it, and vice versa. Such a sentiment leaves its physical effect on the cells as well as on the genes inthe body. This adaptation, will be transmitted by inheritance. The inheritors automatically reject the colour rejected by the legator as a result of inheriting the sentiment of their legator. Consequently, people are only harmonious with their own arts and heritage. They are not harmonious with the arts of others because of heredity, even though those people, who differ in heritage, speak a single common language.

Such a difference emerges between the groups of one people, even if it is on a small scale.

To learn a single language is not the problem, and to understand others' arts as a result oflearning their language is also not the problem. The problem is the impossibility of a realintuitional adaptation to the language of others.

This will remain impossible until the effects of heredity, which are transmitted in the human body, come to an end. Mankind is still backward because humans do not communicate in one inherited common language. It is only a matter of time before mankind, achieves that goal, unless civilization should relapse.

SPORT, HORSEMANSHlP AND THE STAGE

Sport is either private, like the prayer which one performs alone inside a closed room, or public, performed collectively in open places, like the prayer which is practised corporately in places of worship. The first type of sport concerns the individuals themselves, while the second type is of concern to all people. It must be practised by all31

and should not be left to anyone else to practise on their behalf. It is unreasonable for crowds to enter places of worship just to view a person or a group of people praying without taking part. It is equally unreasonable for crowds to enter playgrounds and arenas to watch a player of a team without participating themselves.

Sport is like praying, eating, and the feelings of coolness and warmth. It is unlikely that crowds will enter a restaurant just to look at a person or a group of people eat. It is also unlikely that they will let a person or a group or people enjoy warmth or ventilation on their behalf. It is equally illogical for the society to allow an individual or a team to monopolize sports while the society as a whole pays the costs of such a monopoly for the exclusive benefit of one person or team. In the same way, people should not allow an individual or a group, whether it is a party, class, sect, tribe or parliament, to replace them in deciding their destiny and in defining their needs.

Private sport is of concern only to those who practise it on their own and at their own expense. Public sport is a public need and the people cannot be either democratically or physically represented by others in its practice. Physically, the representative cannot transmit to others how his body and morale benefit from sport. Democratically, no individual or team has the right to monopolize sport, power, wealth or arms for themselves. Sporting clubs represent the basic organization of traditional sport in the world today. They retain all expenditure and public facilities allocated to sport in every state. These institutions are social monopolistic agencies like all dictatorial political instruments which monopolize authority, economic instruments which monopolize wealth, and traditional military instruments which monopolize arms. As the era of the masses does away with the instruments monopolizing power, wealth and arms, it will, inevitably, destroy the monopoly of social activity in such areas as sports, horsemanship, and so forth. The masses who queue to vote for a candidate to represent them in deciding their destiny act on the impossible assumption that this person will represent them and embody, on their behalf, their dignity, sovereignty and point of view. However, those masses who are robbed of their will and dignity are reduced to mere spectators, watching another person performing what they should naturally be doing themselves.

The same holds true of the crowds who, because of ignorance, fail to practise sport by and for themselves. They are fooled by monopolistic instruments which endeavour to stupefy them and divert them to indulging in laughter and applause instead. Sport, as a social activity, must be for the masses, just as power, wealth and arms should be in the hands of the people.

Public sport is for all the masses. It is right of all people for their health and recreational benefit. It is mere stupidity to leave its benefits to certain individuals and teams who monopolize these while the masses provide the facilities and pay the expenses for the establishment of public sports. The thousands who crowd stadiums to view, applaud and laugh are foolish people who have failed to carry out the activity themselves. They line up lethargically in the stands of the sports grounds, and applaud those heroes who wrest from them the initiative, dominate the field and control the sport and, in so doing, exploit the facilities that the masses provide. Originally, the public grandstands were designed to demarcate the masses from the playing fields and grounds; to prevent the masses from having access to the playing fields. When the masses march and play sport in the centre of playing fields and open spaces, stadiums will be vacant and become redundant. This will take place when the masses become aware of the fact; that sport is a public activity which must be practised rather than watched. This is more reasonable as an alternative than the present costum of a helpless apathetic majority that merely watches.

Grandstands will disappear because no one will be there to occupy them. Those who are unable to perform the roles of heroism in life, who are ignorant of the events of history;32

who fall short of envisaging the future, and who are not serious enough in their own lives,are the trivial people who fill the seats of the theatres and cinemas to watch the events of life in order to learn their course. They are like pupils who occupy school desks because they are uneducated and also initially illiterate.

Those who direct the course of life for themselves have no need to watch life working through actors on the stage or in the cinema. Horsemen who hold the reins of their horses likewise have no seat in the grandstands at the race course. If every person has a horse, no one will be there to watch and applaud. The sitting spectators are only those who are too helpless to perform this kind of activity because they are not horsemen.

Bedouin peoples show no interest in theatres and shows because they are very serious and industrious. As they have created a serious life, they ridicule acting. Bedouin societies also do not watch performers, but perform games and take part in joyful ceremonies because they naturally recognize the need for these activities and practise them spontaneously.

Boxing and wrestling are evidence that mankind has not rid itself of all savage behaviour. Inevitably it will come to an end when humanity ascends the ladder of civilization. Human sacrifice and pistol duels were familiar practices in previous stages of human evolution. However, those savage practices came to an end years ago. People now laugh at themselves and regret such acts. This will be the fate of boxing and wrestling after tens or hundreds of years. The more the people become civilized and sophisticated, the more they are able to ward off both the performance and the encouragement of these practices.33SOURCE
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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

FEEDBACK

Lord, Please walk beside me through this day. Clear the heavy air with the lightness of Your Presence. Guide my hands and steady my heart that I may give comfort when I cannot give hope, that I may give relief when I do not have a cure, and that I may radiate Your healing peace when the limits of science, time, and the human body overwhelm us all.Amen